Are juries best suited to sort through and apply facts in such complicated affairs as oil spills and cleanups? United States v. Evergreen Resource Recovery, LLC shows the Fifth Circuit’s willingness to expand Seventh Amendment rights for jury trials to corporations under statutory claims. While oil corporations are not likely to pursue a jury trial, allowing for a jury trial presents significant opportunities to reframe arguments at trial to persuade a jury to find in a particular party’s favor. Allowing a jury trial for an oil spill cleanup case is a new right within the category of environmental laws. Finding a Seventh Amendment right for defendants under the Oil Pollution Act has potential implications for higher government expenditures, for greater outcome biases that may favor defendants, and for the introduction of a jury right in cases brought under similar environmental statutes.
This in brief discusses the history of the Seventh Amendment, how the Fifth Circuit found that a right to a jury trial exists in Oil Pollution Act cases, and what this means for future cases where the right to a jury has been invoked.
