During the session of September 17, 2012, Puerto Rico’s Senate unanimously supported a resolution signed by Senator Liza Fernández, which orders the Senate’s Commission of the Judicial to analyze the possibility of amending the current Civil Procedure Rules in order to establish trials by jury in civil cases in the state courts.
Currently, only criminal cases are viewed before a jury, contrary to the Federal system, where trials by jury are held in civil cases.
“Juries are formed by people who unite to attend one single case, therefore, they are not predisposed to the prejudices judges can have throughout their whole careers against certain complaints, attorneys or litigants. A jury is a group of people, therefore, the prejudices of a single juror cannot destroy the ability of reaching a fair conclusion”, reads the preamble or explanatory statement of the Resolution.
We believe that establishing a right to a jury trial would be a huge step of progress in the litigation of tort and medical malpractice cases. Regardless of the fact that we have excellent judges, who are very objective and are legal experts, the jury is really a representative of the community who is in an optimum position of solving controversies.