The latest Release 20 (2025 edition) of Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions (CALCRIM) includes both new and recently revised jury instructions as approved by the Judicial Council, containing all instructions applicable to each and every case, allowing the trial judge to determine what the jury should be instructed on that particular subject. This 2025 Edition of CALCRIM includes 70 new and revised Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions approved by the Judicial Council in early March 2025. Newly amended instructions include updates made to: the crimes of: Homicide, Assaultive Crimes and Battery, Kidnapping, Aron, Theft and Extorsion, Sentencing Enhancement Factors, etc. In providing these updates, the Judicial Council is fulfilling its charge to ensure that CALCRIM reflects all changes in the law so that the most up-to-date legal precedents are available to all legal practitioners.

The Judicial Council's reasoning as to why these CALCRIM instructions are so often impenetrable is that they are based on the language of case law and statutes written by and for a specialized legal audience, expressed in terms of art that have evolved through multiple languages, in many countries, over several centuries. CALCRIM's goal was not to lose either the majesty of the law or the rich language in which lawyers and judges have expressed it. In that regard, the work reflects a belief that this sound communication of the law and its instructions considers the audience to which it is addressed.