If a debt collector sues you to collect a debt you may wonder if a jury will hear your case at a trial. The answer is that it depends, and it may ultimately be your decision.
Debt collectors hire attorneys to file lawsuits in court so they can obtain a judgment against debtors. They can then use that judgment to garnish wages, repossess property, place a lien on your property, or garnish your bank account. Usually the attorneys are not paid a salary or hourly wage to do this work. Instead they work on a contingency fee, meaning that they get paid only if they collect the debt. Debt collection attorneys usually receive 20% – 40% of what they recover. This means they want to obtain a judgment quickly and use very few resources and incur very few costs. Attorneys hope that you don’t respond to the lawsuit and they obtain a quick and easy default judgment. What attorneys don’t want to do is go to trial. Trials take precious time away from debt collection attorneys. And jury trials take more time than bench trials (which are trials in which the judge, not a jury, hears the evidence and decides which side wins).
What are the different types of trials?
Trials can be decided in two ways. In a jury trial, a group of jurors will listen to evidence from both sides and decide who wins the case. In a bench trial, the judge will listen to evidence from both sides and decide who wins.
Bench trials usually go much faster and for a debt collection case, the trial would probably last only one day, or perhaps even one afternoon. A jury trial will probably take longer. The parties will have to go through the jury selection process to select which jurors will be on the jury panel. This process alone often takes a full day or at the very least, an entire morning. During the trial there may be things the jury is and is not allowed to hear so the judge may excuse the jury to decide certain issues outside of the hearing of the jury. And at the end of a trial, the jury will meet and deliberate and the parties will wait for the jury to reach their decision.
In a bench trial the parties don’t need to take any time selecting the jury and the case moves much more quickly because the judge can hear the evidence and arguments and just move forward without worrying about whether the jury can or cannot hear certain evidence. The parties also don’t need to wait for the judge to deliberate. The judge could simply decide to issue his verdict as soon as the parties finish presenting their case. The judge is only one person and does not need to confer with any others to reach a consensus verdict. A judge could also decide to take time to deliberate, and will often tell the parties that he will issue a written decision sometime in the next few weeks or months. The parties will not have to wait around in person to hear a verdict and will just receive it in the mail when the judge has made the decision.
The big difference between bench and jury trials is obviously who decides the case. In a bench trial, one judge, who has legal training, will determine the outcome. In a jury trial, a group of random people, likely with no legal training, will determine the outcome.
Is a bench trial or jury trial better for a debtor?
This probably depends on the case. If you know that the judge has legal training and the jury likely does not, you probably want to determine if you have strong legal arguments that would convince someone who understands legal arguments (like a judge) or if you want to make more of an emotional arguments about fairness, in which case you may want to consider trying your case to a jury.
Another consideration is time. Since jury trial typically take more time, as a debtor and defendant, you should consider how much time you will be able to devote to a trial. If you go to trial and it takes three days, will you be able to take time off of work? Although a debt collection attorney may not want to spend the time at trial, the attorney will have the time to be at trial because it is the attorney’s job to be in court. You may have a job and not be able to take off that much time. In that case, you may want to consider a bench trial.
You may also want to research your judge to determine if the judge would be a good judge for your case. Most judges were practicing attorneys before becoming judges, so research their bios to learn what kind of law they practiced. Did they do debt collection work for creditors? If so, you probably want to avoid a bench trial.
You also may want to consider your state’s rules on juries. Each state may be different. Some states may have a jury of six people. Other states may have a jury of 12 people. Some states may require 75% of the jurors to agree on a verdict. Other states may require the jurors to reach a unanimous decision. If your state requires juries to reach a unanimous decision and you are confident in convincing just one person of your case, maybe you might consider a jury trial.
Another consideration in deciding between jury and bench trials is cost. Some states will require the party requesting a jury trial to submit a jury fee. If your court charges a fee you may want to consider a bench trial to reduce the cost of your case.
Bench trials are often less formal than jury trials. In jury trials there are strict rules of evidence that the parties must follow that may be hard to learn and understand for a non-lawyer debtor handling the case alone. In a bench trial, the judge may not follow the rules as strictly and may give the non-represented party more leeway in presenting the evidence. If you fail to ask a critical question to a witness, a judge in a bench trial may decide to ask the question of the witness himself or herself. The judge will not likely take that approach in a jury trial where a judge could be seen as lacking impartiality by asking additional questions. The judge in a bench trial might also ask questions of the parties out of turn or request them to provide specific information. This probably wouldn’t happen in a jury trial.
On top of all this, trial outcomes are just unpredictable. Choosing between a bench trial and a jury trial can be a difficult decision and you may not know if you made the decision until after trial, if you can even know at all.
Also, you may not even have a choice. If your creditor requests a jury trial, then you will have a jury trial and will not have the option to choose. However, most creditors don’t request a jury trial. Remember that the debt collection attorneys like to get quick outcomes and avoid costs. This means that they usually prefer bench trials. On top of all that, debt collection attorneys are typically making cold legal arguments and usually represent unsympathetic debt collection companies. For this reasons creditors usually like bench trials as a judge is more likely to look only at the legal arguments and avoid making the decision based on emotion.
The U.S. Department of Justice also released some statistics on jury trials that might be helpful in your decision-making process. For example, they found that almost 70% of civil trials (which would include debt collection cases) were jury trials. 33% of trials involved contractual issues, which are common issues in debt collection cases. Plaintiffs won in almost 60% of trials overall. Their research also found that jury trials lasted two days longer on average than bench trials. You can find their research and findings by clicking here.
How do tell the court what type of trial I want?
If you want a bench trial and the plaintiff has not requested a jury trial, you probably don’t need to do anything specific to request a bench trial. When your case reaches the trial stage the judge will just schedule a bench trial.
If you want a jury trial and the plaintiff has not requested a jury trial, you will need to request a jury trial. Every state will have its own rules for how this is done but you probably need to make the request very early in the case. If you want a jury trial it is typically good practice to request the jury (and pay the fee, if applicable) when you file your answer, unless your state prohibits this method of requesting a jury trial. Many states have rules for requesting a jury trial that if you don’t follow, you may waive your right to a jury trial. If you request a jury in your answer, just add a section to the end of the document that states something like “I hereby request a trial by jury.” You can also make the title of the document “Answer and Jury Demand.” If your state requires or allows a separate jury demand, just file a form called “Jury Demand” that uses the same language mentioned above, sign it and file it with the court (also sending a copy to opposing counsel).
If you are headed to trial for your debt collection case, good luck! Trials are tough but it can feel great to beat your debt collector in court and have a judge or a jury tell the collector that you do not have to pay the debt.
If you need forms and guidance on how to handle your debt collection defense case but you can’t or don’t want to pay a lawyer, Debtbrief can help. We have a set of forms that you can use to defend yourself in court, and it comes with an e-book that explains how and when to use the forms. These are forms and knowledge that the attorney on the other side already have, and now you can have them too in order to put yourself on equal footing. You can purchase the forms here.
If you like these tips about jury and bench trials, you’ll probably also like many of the other posts and tips we publish. At Debtbrief, our goal is to help people being sued by debt collectors defend themselves in court. You can sign up for our email newsletter to get even more of our tips on how to defend yourself in court. Just enter your email in the form below.
