Los Angeles Court System Looks To Increase Civil Jury Trials

The Los Angeles County Superior Court has indicated it plans to increase its jury trial activities. Since March of 2020, most civil courthouses have put the brakes on jury trials due to the Coronavirus pandemic. With the physical jury trial postponed for most civil cases, priority was given to certain cases like domestic abuse, family, and criminal trials. Civil litigation attorneys began hearing that cases currently on the docket would expect to see delays of one, two, and even three years before a jury would be possible. The ramifications of this kind of ‘justice delayed-justice denied’ will be analyzed for some time to come, however, courts were left with few options.

Presiding Judge Eric C. Taylor announced in early April 2021, several court policy maneuvers that would ultimately lead to an increase in jury trials. It designated certain internal court areas to organize new jury trials, and made clear their priority was to avoid crowded court halls.

“These new coordinated procedures seek to ensure that courthouses, as well as hallways within our courthouses, do not become overcrowded,” Presiding Judge Taylor said. “A Civil courtroom may be next door to a courtroom holding a Criminal trial – and therefore we need to carefully regulate the scheduling of jury trials consistent with social distancing. The Court has a limited number of courtrooms large enough to accommodate jury trials and we need to assess the availability of jurors. Given these complexities, I have designated Department 1 as the central place to make these assessments, allowing the Court to gradually provide Civil attorneys and litigants the access to justice they need to resolve their cases safely and efficiently.”

The ramp-up statement indicated that judges will still require attempts at mediation or resolution before being granted a jury trial. While this is a common practice, judges are likely to see good faith efforts at mediation in a much more favorable light given the strained resources of the court system.