Page "Jury" Paragraph 37

Both Article III of the U. S. Constitution and the Sixth Amendment require that criminal cases be tried by a jury, and the Fourteenth Amendment applies this mandate to the states.

Although the initial draft did not require a jury for civil cases, this led to an uproar which was followed by the Seventh Amendment, which requires a civil jury in cases where the value in dispute is greater than twenty dollars.

However, the Seventh Amendment right to a civil jury trial does not apply in state courts, where the right to a jury is strictly a matter of state law.

But, in practice, all states but Louisiana, preserve the right to a jury trial in almost all civil cases where the sole remedy sought is money damages to the same extent as jury trials are permitted by the 7th Amendment, although sometimes jury trials are not allowed in small claims cases.

The civil jury in the United States is a defining element of the process by which personal injury trials are handled in the United States.