You are correct on all fronts- with some caveats.

In my experience, juries don’t respond as well to dropping a stack of medical records in front of them, and while 10-104 is still available, the impression is seriously muted as opposed to a judge, used to seeing and reviewing meds. You don’t need an expert but having one there makes a better impression.

District Courts, while seriously backed up after the pandemic, are still way faster than Circuit. And while the vast majority of cases settle, sometimes it takes a looming trial date to get the parties to talk.

The right to a jury is important, but so is the right to a remedy for harms done. And when insurance companies plead jury trials in bad faith as a delaying tactic, nobody’s rights are served.

It’s difficult to think of one, since you get to pick your Court as a Plaintiff. (If you had a $3,000 claim and wanted a jury trial, knock yourself out!) But, if you were being sued and thought that you stood a better chance with a jury as opposed to a judge, then this would raise the bar for getting in front of a jury.

Keep in mind that this is just for Civil (not criminal) cases.

As long as we’re talking about something you have insurance for, (car insurance, homeowners, renters, business) I believe the minimum liability coverage on the state is 30k, so this would still keep you protected under your policy.

My reply got really long so I moved it to its own comment.

Real example: I just had a trial last month for an accident where the guy had about 8k in medical bills plus about a month missed from work. Sued for 30,000; it got bumped, and we just finally had the trial.

The accident happened in 2018.

We won (jury verdict was more than $15,000) which is fine. But we could have done that 3 years ago when if they hadn’t bumped us up to Circuit.

I’m a lawyer in Baltimore that does Plaintiff personal injury cases. Question 3- raising the dollar amount to request a jury, is a VERY GOOD IDEA. There are two levels of trial court in Maryland: District and Circuit Court. District court is faster and is a judge trial. Circuit takes way longer (like years as opposed to 6-12 months) Right now, if you sue for more than $15,000, the defendant can bump you from district to circuit.

State Farm uses this in EVERY case- if I have a client with like $10,000 in medical bills, I can’t sue for $15,000 because that cap is way too low. If I sue it for the jurisdictional limit of $30,000 for District court, they’ll move the case to Circuit which makes it way way more expensive and time consuming to litigate

Then I’m stuck doing a full blown jury trial for only $10k in medical bills. I might have to hire a medical expert to testify ($$$) and all of a sudden, the case is delayed, costs a lot more money, and makes you think twice about filing a medium-dollar case.

This would bump that number from $15,000 to $25,000, making all of this easier.

I’m a lawyer in Baltimore that does Plaintiff personal injury cases. Question 3- raising the dollar amount to request a jury, is a VERY GOOD IDEA.