NCPRO Newsletter for September 5th, 2019

This is the third installment of our occasional newsletter about NC PRO. We know you’re busy, so as always we’ll try to keep this short.

NEW! Pattern Jury Instructions

Several prosecutors have contacted us to ask if the pattern jury instructions for criminal cases could be included in NC PRO. These instructions are freely available over at the Pattern Jury Instruction Online Library, but the format on that site doesn’t provide an easy way to quickly search through all the different instructions and access the right ones. So we created a new Section 800 on NC PRO for Pattern Jury Instructions, and we linked each entry in the table of contents to the appropriate jury instruction. We think you’ll find this layout much more intuitive and easier to use.

Ready to see the new NC PRO Jury Instructions page? It’s available right here.

Updates and Reminders

  1. Section 700: Evidence

Speaking of making the site more useful, if you weren’t at the June conference in Cherokee then you may have missed our previous announcement about adding a new Section 700 for Evidence. Do you need a few cases to back up your argument that a statement is not hearsay because it’s only being offered to show “effect on the listener?” Find them here. Need a refresher on what types of character evidence are allowed in a particular situation? Start here. All the entries up through the Rule 804 hearsay exceptions are now posted on the site, and we are working on finishing the remaining entries (Authentication, Contents of Writings, and Types of Evidence) as quickly as possible.

  1. NC Crimes Online

In our last email, we let users know that if they need to research substantive criminal law such as the elements of an offense, they can use NC PRO to link over to the online version of NC Crimes. We heard back from a number of users who were a little unclear on where to find that link, so we decided to make it even easier. There is now a large, blue, standalone button located right in the top banner of every NC PRO page. Just click the button, log into NC Crimes, and start searching.

  1. Stats and Usage

Finally, just a few words about the site as a whole. It’s been less than a year since NC PRO went live, but more than 550 North Carolina prosecutors have already signed up for accounts, and the site has logged close to 44,000 page views from nearly 10,000 visitors. Thanks so much for using it, and we hope you are finding it useful. Please continue to help us make NC PRO even better by uploading your sample motions and briefs, flagging any entries that need updates or revisions, and sending us your comments and suggestions on how we can improve the site.

Sincerely,

NC PRO Team