🌅 Jury Trials Are Disappearing

SOURCE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

WHAT TO KNOW

• Juries decided just 0.31% of all civil cases—disputes between two private parties—in U.S. federal courts in 2024, a steep decline from 5.54% in 1962 (when federal judicial statistics first became reliable enough to track the trend). The trend is similar in federal criminal cases, with the average judge presiding over just two jury trials last year, and also extends to state courts, where juries now decide just 1-2% of all civil and criminal cases.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Juries in civil cases have been displaced in recent decades by things like mandatory arbitration clauses, legislatively imposed limits on how much a plaintiff can recover, and changes to procedural rules themselves. In criminal cases, private plea bargains struck between prosecutors and defendants now resolve more than 90% of cases nationwide.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Research shows serving on a jury increases a person’s trust in the justice system. Jurors get to deliberate legal issues and engage with the system and its officers directly, helping develop a sense of fairness and justice in the process. Jury service may also be a remedy America desperately needs: a recent survey by Gallup found a record-low 35% of U.S. adults have confidence in our judicial system.