Arbitration not causing decline in jury trials.
The National Arbitration Forum Blog posts on the myth that arbitration is causing the decline in jury trials; the high cost of trying a case is behind the vanishing jury trial.
[I]t is incorrect to identify contractual arbitration as a source of the decline in jury trials. ...The fact is: while jury trials are becoming more rare, court filings over contractual disputes have risen. Since contractual disputes where the parties have agreed to arbitration are by definition not filed in court, contractual arbitration (if it was the culprit) should reduce the number or cases being filed in court. But, this is not the case. So, the rise in court filings over disputed contracts suggests that contractual arbitration is certainly not the source of a decline in trials.
The reality is that over the years, going to trial has become more and more expensive in terms of both time and money. Only 2-3 % of cases ever go to trial. And any litigator will tell you that more and more judges are using both formal and informal settlement techniques the result of which is, of course, fewer jury trials
My Take: Attorneys are so focused on discovery, battles related to discovery and motion practice there is not enough money left in clients' litigation budgets to go to trial. Could hourly billing be a cause of this problem?