For The Defense, November 2012 - DRI Today
For The Defense, November 2012 - DRI Today
For The Defense, November 2012 - DRI Today
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<strong>The</strong> Civil Justice System<br />
<strong>DRI</strong>’s Jury Preservation<br />
Task <strong>For</strong>ce<br />
By Jonathan M. Judge,<br />
Lori Vella<br />
and Hudson Jones<br />
Ongoing Efforts<br />
to Preserve Our<br />
Unique Right<br />
A review of the factors<br />
behind the vanishing<br />
jury trial, and a look at<br />
how some jurisdictions<br />
are implementing<br />
innovations designed to<br />
address the problem.<br />
<strong>The</strong> problem of the vanishing jury trial is a familiar one<br />
to <strong>DRI</strong> members, for whom this loss is keenly felt. This<br />
decline in jury trials presents not only an economic threat<br />
to membership, but also a decline in fair and just adjudication.<br />
Many disputes cannot and should<br />
not settle, and contrary to what mediators<br />
frequently claim, the fact that everyone is<br />
dissatisfied with a settlement is not necessarily<br />
proof that settlement was the appropriate<br />
resolution.<br />
■ Jonathan M. Judge, a partner of Schiff Hardin LLP in Chicago, focuses his practice on product<br />
liability and related litigation. He is the publications chair for the <strong>DRI</strong> Trial Tactics Committee.<br />
Lori Vella is a partner at Butler Pappas in Tampa, specializing in complex property<br />
contractual disputes and extra- contractual claims, as well as litigation involving construction<br />
defects and professional liability. She serves <strong>DRI</strong> as membership chair of the Insurance<br />
Law Committee and as a member of the Jury Preservation Task <strong>For</strong>ce. Hudson<br />
Jones is an associate at Butler Pappas in Tampa, working in the firm’s Property Coverage<br />
Group.<br />
10 ■ <strong>For</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Defense</strong> ■ <strong>November</strong> <strong>2012</strong>