From time to time, the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions makes changes to the Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions for both civil and criminal cases, or the Committee may amend or update the Comments section on certain instructions. The changes usually go into effect immediately. Until these changes are published in a bound volume of the Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, they may be found on the Illinois Courts Web site, <http://www.state.il.us/court/>. There are links to the modified civil and criminal instructions on the left side of the page under the “Legal Community” heading. Once the modifications are incorporated into a bound volume, they are removed from the Web site.
The Illinois Courts Web site also includes an e-mail notification service which will send an e-mail when an instruction is modified, <http://www.state.il.us/court/General/listservices.asp>. The Web site allows a user to sign up for other e-mail notifications as well, including Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court opinions, docket reports, rule changes, and other court orders and announcements. This is an excellent way for government attorneys to keep updated on these issues. ■