Document Type
Article
Publication Title
American Journal of Trial Advocacy
Publication Date
2016
Volume
40
First Page
1
Abstract
(Excerpt)
The Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution provides in relevant part that "[i]n suits at common law, where the value in controversy exceeds twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." The jury trial has long been the foundation of the American civil justice system and is deeply embedded in American culture. As the Supreme Court has observed, "[m]aintenance of the jury as a factfinding body is of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right to a jury trial should be scrutinized with the utmost care." Consistent with that approach, the Court has construed the Seventh Amendment broadly to protect the right to jury trial.
Nevertheless, "[t]he surface simplicity of [the Seventh Amendment] is beguiling for the exact scope of its application was unclear even when it was first adopted." Applying the so-called historical test, courts have upheld the right to jury trial when the issue in question is essentially legal in nature, irrespective of whether the right in question existed at the time the Seventh Amendment was adopted. Notwithstanding the popular reverence for the jury system and the Supreme Court's expansive view of the Seventh Amendment, the use of lay jurors to decide complicated fact issues in antitrust cases, as well as in other types of cases, has come under criticism, notably from the judiciary.