MICHAEL D. MARCUS’S MEDIATION MESSAGE NO. 118 EXPEDITED JURY TRIALS ARE MANDATORY FOR CASES UNDER $25,000 The voluntary Expedited Jury Trial Act (Code of Civil Procedure §§ 630.01 – 630.10), in effect for the last five years, is now permanent, as of January 1, 2016. More importantly, the Act is mandatory as of July 1, 2016 (until January 1, 2019, unless otherwise extended by the legislature) where the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000,…

THE EXPEDITED JURY TRIAL ACT Since the Expedited Jury Trial Act (Act; Code of Civil Procedure §§ 630.01 – 630.10) goes into effect on January 1, 2011, and the Judicial Council has recently created enabling procedures (Rules 3.1545 et seq.) which may have been underpublicized, I thought it would be helpful to summarize some of the Act’s provisions for those who may want to risk the uncertainty of trial, albeit now in a truncated form:…