Introduction
Jury trials provide the opportunity for a group of people,
selected at random from the community, to decide issues of fact or
assess damages in a Superior Court action. An action can be tried
with a jury if a jury notice is delivered by one of the parties
before the close of pleadings, which is typically early on in the
life of an action. After pleadings are closed, a jury notice can
only be delivered with leave of the court.1
This right to a trial by jury is an important right, and one
that will not be denied without cogent reason.2
Depending on the evidence at hand, and one's position in an
action, this can either be a useful option or an avenue best
avoided. There are some kinds of actions, however, that preclude
the presence of a jury.3 One such situation is in
respect of a claim for relief against a municipality, which gives
rise to a question: if an action has multiple defendants, one of
them being a municipality, and the municipality is let out
