PJC Business

PREFACE TO THE 2022 EDITION Recognizing the honor of serving with the distinguished members of the Commit tee, I can unequivocally report that the work manifested in this volume reflects the serious consideration of our primary charge (pun intended): to assist practitioners and courts in charging juries in civil cases. We have remained vigilant to developments in the law—both common law and statutory. Central to our mission and work is to assist by making challenging legal issues more accessible to practitioners who often during trial have many things on their minds other than a charge tailored to the case at hand. Among the major projects that have resulted in changes to this volume is the new substantial reorganization and updating of the contracts chapter (101). The goal here was simple: to organize the chapter in a more user-friendly manner by grouping ques tions, instructions, and comments. In our judgment, this will help both experienced practitioners with sophisticated appreciation for charge law and practice as well as our colleagues who do not yet have such experience in charge work. We express gratitude for the work done on prior volumes, because updating the chapter would not have been possible without the countless hours prior committees spent updating and revising this and the other chapters. In addition to the contracts reorganization, the employment subcommittee spent considerable effort and time in threading through challenging changes required by new legislation and harmonizing them with the long-standing guidance from the supreme court that federal employment laws should inform Texas employment law. Part of our work involved collaboration with other volumes and coordinating with Oversight. In addition to the close work with the Texas Pattern Jury Charges—Oil & Gas volume on parts of the contracts chapter, we appreciate and recognize the contri butions from those serving on other volumes on joint subcommittees. Finally, the work of this Committee was made possible by the tremendous staff at the State Bar, many of whom contributed to this publication but no one more than Elma Garcia, whose tireless work on and contribution to these publications cannot be overstated. —Carlos R. Soltero, Chair

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