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Rule 39 – Trial by Jury or by the Court

May 14, 2021 | Civil Procedure, North Dakota

(a) When a Demand is Made. When a jury trial has been demanded under Rule 38, the action must be designated on the docket as a jury action. The trial on all issues so demanded must be by jury unless:

(1) the parties or their attorneys file a stipulation to a nonjury trial or so stipulate on the record; or
(2) the court, on motion or on its own, finds that on some or all of those issues there is no right to a jury trial.
(b) When No Demand is Made. Issues on which a jury trial is not properly demanded are to be tried by the court. But the court may, on motion, order a jury trial on any issue for which a jury might have been demanded.
(c) Advisory Jury; Jury Trial by Consent. In an action not triable of right by a jury, the court, on motion or on its own:

(1) may try any issue with an advisory jury; or
(2) may, with the parties’ consent, try any issue by a jury whose verdict has the same effect as if a jury trial had been a matter of right.

N.d. R. Civ. P. 39

Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of January 29-30, 2009, page 33; November 29-30, 1979, page 9; Fed.R.Civ.P. 39.

EXPLANATORY NOTE Rule 39 was amended, effective March 1, 2011. Rule 39 is derived from Fed.R.Civ.P. 39. Rule 39 was amended, effective March 1, 2011, in response to theDecember 1, 2007, revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. STATUTES AFFECTED: SUPERSEDED: Sections 28-1206, 32-0113, NDRC 1943.

Rule 38 (Jury Trial of Right), N.D.R.Civ.P.