California Jury Instructions
Criminal
CALCRIM
User's Guide
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victims involving different facts. Thus, when an instruction is being used for more than one count and the factual basis for the instruction is different for the different counts, the user will need to modify the instruction as appropriate.  

Related California Jury Instructions, Criminal (CALJIC)
The CALJIC and CALCRIM instructions should never be used together. While the
legal principles are obviously the same, the organization of concepts is approached
differently. Trying to mix the two sets of instructions into a unified whole cannot be
done and may result in omissions or confusion that could severely compromise clarity
and accuracy. Nevertheless, for convenient reference this publication includes tables ofrelated CALJIC instructions.

Titles and Definitions
The titles of the instructions are directed to lawyers and sometimes use words and phrases not used in the instructions themselves. The title is not a part of the instruction. The titles may be removed before presentation to the jury.The instructions avoid separate definitions of legal terms whenever possible. Instead, definitions have been incorporated into the language of the instructions in which the terms appear. When a definition is lengthy, a cross-reference to that definition is provided.

Alternatives vs. Options
When the user must choose one of two or more options in order to complete the instruction, the choice of necessary alternatives is presented in parentheses thus: When the defendant acted, George Jones was performing (his/her) duties as a schoolemployee. The instructions use brackets to provide optional choices that may be necessary or appropriate, depending on the individual circumstances of the case: [If you find that George Jones threatened or harmed the defendant [or others] in the past, you may consider that information in evaluating the defendant’s beliefs.] Finally, both parentheses and brackets may appear in the same sentence to indicate options that arise depending on which necessary alternatives are selected: [It is not required that the person killed be the (victim/intended victim) of the (felony/ [or] felonies).].

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