The jury continues to vanish

Don't know how I missed this, but in October, the National Center for State Courts released its latest study of the nation's court system. (Thanks to Mary Whisner at Trial Ad Notes for the tip.) Buried in there in the rich data on the civil courts is the troubling fact that of all the civil cases filed in the states studied, only one-half of one percent were resolved by a jury.

Other interesting factoids from the NCSC study:

--the number of incoming civil filings has fallen

--tort cases accounted for only 5 percent of all incoming civil lawsuits (probate cases accounted for more court activity than torts!)

--of the tiny percentage of court dockets taken up by tort cases, medical malpractice and products liability cases accounted for even tinier fractions. In the states studied, med mal cases were 3 percent of all tort filings, and products liability cases between 3 and 4 percent. Car crashes, as always, made up most of the docket (64 percent).

I look at all these numbers, particularly the jury trial data, and wonder how a country can argue so much about something that really adds up to so little...