Expedited Jury Trials in Civil Matters

As of January 1, 2011, a new law went into effect in the State of California allowing for expedited jury trials in civil matters. This new law is known as the Expedited Jury Trials Act. The purpose of this new law is to reduce the number of civil cases by allowing for a civil jury trial to be completed in one day. Participation in the Expedited Jury Trial process is completely voluntarily and must be agreed to be the parties. Highlights of the new law are as follows:

1. Both parties voluntarily agree to a trial where each side gets three hours to put on evidence. Although the goal is to conclude the case in one day, there is no restriction on the time needed by the jury to deliberate.

2. The jury shall consist of no more than eight people (only three peremptory challenges per side for jury selection).

3. The rules of evidence will apply but the parties may stipulate to the use of relaxed rules of evidence.

4. The parties waives the right to appeal most issues.

5. Post-trial motions are eliminated for the most part (with the exception motions relating to costs and attorney's fees, motions to correct a judgment for clerical error, and motions to enforce a judgment).

6. A vote of six out of eight jurors is required for a verdict, and the verdict will be binding, subject to a "high-low" agreement.

7. The parties may enter into a written "high-low agreement" where each side specifies a minimum and maximum amount of damages for which the defendant will be liable, regardless of the jury's verdict.

The new Expedited Jury Trials Act is modeled after similar systems in New York and South Carolina. It will be interesting to see if this reduces the number of civil cases in the court system, especially in Sacramento County. This system seems advantageous to cases with fewer contested issues as opposed to large multi-party actions. Nevertheless, if it moves cases toward resolution, it will be considered a success.

The text of the new law can be found by “googling” AB 2284.