Van v. Language Line, LLC

          PRELIMINARY JURY INSTRUCTIONS

          LUCY H. KOH United States District Judge

         PRELIMINARY JURY INSTRUCTIONS

         IT IS SO ORDERED.

         1. DUTY OF JURY

         Members of the jury: You are now the jury in this case. It is my duty to instruct you on the law.

         These instructions are preliminary instructions to help you understand the principles that apply to civil trials and to help you understand the evidence as you listen to it. You will be allowed to keep this set of instructions to refer to throughout the trial. These instructions are not to be taken home and must remain in the jury room when you leave in the evenings. At the end of the trial, these instructions will be collected and I will give you a final set of instructions. It is the final set of instructions that will govern your deliberations.

         It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you will apply the law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will recall that you took an oath to do so.

         Please do not read into these instructions or anything I may say or do that I have an opinion regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be.

         2. CLAIMS AND DEFENSES

         To help you follow the evidence, I will give you a brief summary of the positions of the parties:

         The plaintiff Nathalie Thuy Van asserts that Defendant Language Line, LLC did not pay her for overtime she worked, did not provide her meal and rest breaks, and did not provide her with accurate wage statements. The plaintiff has the burden of proving these claims.

         The defendant denies these claims.

         3. BURDEN OF PROOF-PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE

         When a party has the burden of proof on any claim by a preponderance of the evidence, it means you must be persuaded by the evidence that the claim is more probably true than not true.

         You should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless of which party presented it.

         4. WHAT IS EVIDENCE

         The evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are consists of:

(1) the sworn testimony of any witness;

(2) the exhibits which are received in evidence;

(3) any facts to which the parties have ...