New Legislation: Expedited Jury Trials Are Now Possible, With Attorney's Fees Motions Among The Allowable Motions

 

AB 2284 Became Effective January 1, 2011.

     Effective January 1, 2011, litigants can opt to participate in an expedited jury trial before a reduced jury panel of eight jurors with a goal to complete the trial in one day. Participation is completely voluntary, but the parties do agree to waive certain post-trial motions and limit the issues to be appealed drastically. The parties can also enter into high/low agreements. Voir dire and pre-trial procedures are much more truncated in nature and much more flexible.

     The only post-trial motions allowed, fortunately for the litigants, are motions relating to costs and attorney's fees, motions to correct a judgment for clerical error, and motion to enforce a judgment. (Code Civ. Proc., § 630.09(c).) So, there appear to be no procedural changes for bringing costs or fee issues before the trial court under this new procedure.

     For more on this expedited jury trial process, see Patrick Cathcart's recent LexisNexis Emerging Issues Analysis on the subject. (See 2011 Emerging Issues 5474.) Mr. Cathcart is a colleague of co-contributors Marc and Mike at AlvaradoSmith, APC. The new procedure is codified at Code of Civil Procedure section 630.01 et seq.

   First Woman [sic] Jury, Los Angeles.  1915.