San Diego courts resume civil bench trials, jury trial expected in January

San Diego courts resume civil bench trials, jury trials expected in January

San Diego County Superior Court has resumed in-person civil bench trials, it announced Thursday.

Nearly all non-emergency functions at the court were halted in March in response to COVID-19.

Three bench trials began in mid-October and additional trials are being scheduled through the end of the year, according to the announcement. While the court continues to offer remote civil bench trials, parties may now agree to have their cases tried with everyone present in a courtroom.

The first in-person civil jury trial is expected to begin in January 2021, with lower priority or non-preference civil jury trials expected to follow soon after.

Since the pool of jurors for civil trials is limited, parties in a civil case will have the option to agree to a smaller number of jurors, according to the announcement.

Criminal jury trials have taken priority over civil trials thus far. However, as the court increases the number of summoned potential jurors, some of those may be available for jury trials in civil cases, the court announced.

Certain civil cases are entitled by statute to “preference” over other civil cases and will be the first to be scheduled for jury trials. Preference motions, or requests for the Court to consider setting an earlier trial date based on the age and/or health of plaintiffs or other factors, have been heard and the first in-person preference civil jury trial is expected to begin in January 2021. Jury trials in non-preference civil cases are expected to follow soon after.

As the pool of jurors that can be made available for civil trials is limited, parties in a civil case will have the option to agree to a smaller number of jurors to decide the issues in their case

The COVID-19 pandemic caused nearly all non-emergency functions of the San Diego to come to a halt in March 2020, however, services have steadily resumed over the past several months.

— Blaise Scemama