Jury trials and complicated legal issues

In Caragannis v White, 2023 ABKB 428, a King’s Bench justice declined to permit a jury trial in a personal injury case on the basis that the legal issues were simply too numerous and complex.

The plaintiff was injured in a horse-back riding accident and brought a claim against both an individual and corporate defendant.

The plaintiff was arguing breach of contract, negligence, misrepresentation, occupier's liability, vicarious liability, consumer protection and waiver.

The justice noted that the action would require considering interconnected legal issues. In declining to order a jury trial, the justice commented that given the various claims the plaintiff was making, "the group of them, together, create a nest of interconnected issues which are likely to make a trial by a jury inconvenient."

In reaching this decision, the justice noted: “it is not in the best interest of either party to have a jury attempt to disseminate the many layers of law and complex evidence that will form this proceeding…In situations where a judge could give determinative verdicts on each issue as it comes up a jury would have to hear all the evidence and arguments and then be briefed on the legal issues and standards to be applied to the pleadings… It is difficult to accept that it would not be inconvenient for a jury to do this."

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