How to Track a Jury Trial Waiver After Signing

How to track a jury trial waiver is a bench-versus-jury ledger from signing through any court filing, not another ADR path tab. For each signed deal, log whether a jury waiver is present or silent, what documents it covers, which governing law the waiver names, how it interacts with any ADR clause, any enforceability note copied from the paper, related documents in scope, and status. Raziel's alternative dispute resolution tracking page is whether disputes leave court. This page is whether, once in court, the parties waived a jury.

This is not legal, tax, insurance, or investment advice. Raziel does not provide it. Copy the jury-waiver sentence from the PDF. Do not invent a 2025 Study percentage for jury-trial waivers, and do not paste older study prints onto a silent deal.

What this jury-trial-waiver ledger is (and is not)

A jury trial waiver says disputes that reach court will be tried to a judge, not a jury. Goulston & Storrs, What's Market: Waiver of Jury Trials (May 16, 2024), summarizing ABA Private Target Deal Points Studies, reports that inclusion rose from one-half of reported transactions in the 2007 study to 93% or higher in each of the last three studies (over 90% in the last three). The 2023 study covered 108 deals with transaction values from $30M to $750M. Goulston notes waivers may cover the M&A agreement only, all related documents, or the transaction more generally, and that enforceability can fail if the chosen law has no sufficient relationship to the parties or the deal. Do not invent a 2025 Study percentage for jury-trial waivers. Goulston's 2025 overview (May 6, 2026) lists Waiver of Jury Trials as a Bloomberg series topic but does not publish a 2025 percentage in that overview. Say so in the ledger notes and copy the PDF sentence instead. The ABA 2025 Study sample frame remains useful context: 139 publicly available private-target agreements from 2024 or Q1 2025, $25M to $900M, 42 simultaneous sign-and-close and 97 deferred (K&L Gates / Business Law Today). Those are study snapshots. Your waiver clause controls.

This ledger is not ADR tracking. ADR asks whether you are in court at all (arbitration, mediation, expert determination, or stepped paths). A jury waiver assumes a court path and chooses bench versus jury. Keep them on separate rows so a filing checklist does not confuse the two.

Seven columns on one jury-trial-waiver row

Open one row per signed deal. Attach the waiver clause, the governing-law article, and any ADR clause as a pointer.

• Present or silent. Jury waiver present, or silent. Goulston (May 16, 2024): inclusion rose from about half in the 2007 ABA study to 93% or higher in each of the last three studies (over 90% across those three). Do not invent a 2025 Study percentage. Goulston's May 6, 2026 overview does not publish one. Copy presence from your PDF.

• Scope. Agreement only, all deal documents, or the transaction generally. Goulston notes all three patterns appear. Copy the exact scope sentence.

• Governing law named for the waiver. Copy the choice-of-law language that sits with the waiver (or mark silent). Do not invent a Delaware default onto a California paper.

• Interaction with ADR. If an ADR clause exists, the jury waiver may never fire because the dispute never reaches a jury. Pointer only to the ADR row. Keep method, body, and expense allocation there.

• Enforceability note. Copy any choice-of-law or relationship language the paper uses. Goulston warns enforceability can fail if the chosen law lacks a sufficient relationship to the parties or the deal. Do not invent an enforceability conclusion. Copy the note; leave the legal call to counsel.

• Related docs list. List the related documents the waiver claims to cover (guaranties, side letters, disclosure schedules if named). A narrow list is a different book than "transaction generally."

• Status. Copied, monitoring, court filed (bench path), disputed, waived further, settled, or closed. When a complaint is filed, book whether the waiver was invoked.

Copy the clause, not the study percentage

Do not paste "93% or higher" onto a silent deal. Do not invent a 2025 ABA Study percentage when Goulston's 2025 overview does not publish one for jury-trial waivers. Do not fold this row into ADR tracking. ADR is the path into or out of court. Jury waiver is bench versus jury once you are in court. Keep them separate so litigation counsel can see both elections without conflating them.

When a complaint is drafted, log whether the paper waives jury trial, which documents are in scope, and whether ADR must run first. That trail is what litigation counsel will ask for before any jury demand or waiver motion.

When the ledger holds

The row holds if the seven cells are copied from the PDFs (or marked missing). It fails when you invent a waiver, invent a 2025 Study percentage, invent Delaware as governing law, or treat the ADR tab as if it answered the bench-versus-jury question. Raziel's alternative asset dashboard is where the waiver, the governing-law note, and any filing status should sit together. Raziel does not litigate your jury waiver. Copy the seven columns.