Decline in jury trials the “single biggest loss” to the legal profession, judges say

At a conference at Berkeley this week, several prominent federal judges address the rapid decline in jury trials at the federal level, with Judge David Campbell of Arizona calling the decline the “single biggest loss” to the legal profession.

Law360 has a good roundup, including efforts by judges to make trials affordable and efficient again:

The trend has driven judges to try to incentivize lawyers and their clients to accept expedited litigation schedules so that the parties aren’t embroiled in protracted pretrial disputes for years, according to federal judges speaking at the event, which was hosted by the University of California, Berkeley School of Law’s Berkeley Judicial Institute and the California Law Review.

Judge Campbell said he tried giving parties the option of sending their cases to trial within four months of filing suit. At the outset, he would require the lawyers to provide their clients with two budgets: one budget that estimated the costs of “old-fashioned” litigation and another that would estimate how much it would cost to go to trial within four months, which was always cheaper, he said.

Out of about 800 civil cases, Judge Campbell said not a single one went to trial under the expedited format.  About 80 to 100 parties expressed an interest in the shorter litigation schedule, but the counter party in the case wouldn’t agree to it, the judge said. In three instances, both parties took him up on the offer, but then all three cases were either settled or dropped before trial, Judge Campbell said.

The decline of the jury trial is deeply troubling on many fronts, not the least of which is that is denies affected parties the opportunity to tell their stories in a dignified and open forum. The power behind the opportunity to be heard cannot be stressed enough — it is one of the primary reasons why courts have maintained their legitimacy as institutions.

Not every case should go to trial, of course. But too many cases settle for the wrong reasons — cost, delay, emotional toll, or the desire for secrecy. Restoring a culture of jury trials in our courts would be an important step toward restoring confidence in American democracy as a whole.