When Your Case Is on the Line, Who Really Holds the Power?
If you or someone you love has been hurt, or is facing criminal charges, one question matters more than almost anything else:
Will your lawyer actually take your case to trial if that is what justice requires?
In conference rooms and mediation sessions across Minnesota, that question quietly decides how much an injured person recovers, or whether someone accused of a crime walks free or lives with a conviction. Insurance companies and prosecutors already know the answer. The only people often left in the dark are clients and their families.
At Pacyga Trial Lawyers, jury trials are not a slogan on a website. They are the core of how leverage is created for clients and how constitutional rights are protected.
This is why that matters now more than ever.
Trials in Minnesota Are Disappearing
A recent publication for personal injury lawyers in Minnesota laid out a trend that should alarm anyone who might someday need a lawyer.
Before the pandemic, personal injury jury trials in the Twin Cities were running at roughly 25 to 40 trials per quarter in the metro alone. Statewide, the number was even higher.
Now, statewide, that number has collapsed to around 10 trials per quarter.
And the outcome of those few remaining trials tells an even tougher story. Of those 10 trials in a recent quarter, seven ended in a “zero” verdict for the defense. That means the injured plaintiffs and their lawyers walked away with nothing.
Think about what that implies:
- Fewer cases are being tried at all
- The ones that do reach a jury are often the weakest or most marginal cases
- Many strong cases never see the inside of a courtroom
The right to a jury trial still exists on paper. In practice, it is being used less and less.
Why Fewer Cases Go to Trial
Lawyers across the state have been candid about why trial numbers are dropping.
They talk about:
- Rusty trial skills
If a lawyer is not regularly in a courtroom, those skills fade. Jury selection, cross examination, closing argument, evidentiary fights: these are muscles that atrophy when they are not used. - High out‑of‑pocket costs
Trials require experts, exhibits, transcripts, investigations, and more. One attorney in the article described fronting $38,000 in costs on a single case and walking away with nothing when the jury returned a defense verdict. Many lawyers and firms simply are not willing or able to carry that risk. - Emotional and physical toll
Trials are exhausting. They demand long hours, total focus, and thick skin. Younger lawyers hear war stories about burnout and decide it is not worth the sacrifice to truly become trial lawyers. They handle files. They negotiate. They avoid juries.
Each of these realities is understandable on a personal level.
They are dangerous on a client level.
What This Means for Injured People and the Accused
Insurance companies and defense lawyers pay close attention to which lawyers actually try cases, and which lawyers only threaten to.
The same is true in criminal defense with prosecutors and police.
They know:
- Who has taken a case all the way to verdict in recent years
- Who quietly settles or pleads everything out
- Who will talk about trial in a mediation brief, but will never risk a courtroom
If the other side knows your lawyer has never taken a case to trial or has not tried one in years, that lawyer has no real leverage. Which means:
- The offer on the table is the offer
- There is no incentive for the insurance company or prosecution to improve it
- Everyone at the negotiation table knows the case will never go past mediation or plea discussions
In practical terms, this leaves clients in a weaker position at the exact moment they need strength.
That played out clearly in a recent mediation at Pacyga Trial Lawyers. The defense came in low, then floated the idea of arbitration instead of trial.
On the surface, arbitration sounds efficient and neutral. In reality, it often means:
- The decision is handed to one person
- That person is frequently selected or heavily influenced by the insurance company or institutional side
- The process happens behind closed doors, outside the view of a jury of local citizens
That is a very different kind of justice than standing in front of twelve (or six) people from the community and asking them to decide what is fair.
Arbitration vs. Jury Trial: Who Do You Want Deciding?
Here is the basic choice in many serious cases:
- Arbitration or judge‑only decision
One decision‑maker. Often with repeat relationships with insurers, corporations, or government actors. Limited transparency. Limited community involvement. - Jury trial
A group of ordinary citizens from the community. Diverse backgrounds. Different life experiences. Real people given real power to say:“No, you are wrong. Here is what is fair.”
That second option is not just a negotiation tactic. It is one of the most radical ideas in the history of self‑government.
Most countries on this planet have never given their citizens that kind of authority over the government or over powerful institutions. Many never will.
The United States did. Minnesota does. But a right that goes unused does not stay strong forever.
A right that nobody uses quietly disappears.
That is what is happening to the right to a civil jury trial in Minnesota.
The Jury Trial as an American Right, Not Just a Legal Tool
The right to a jury trial is written into the United States Constitution for both criminal and many civil cases:
- The Sixth Amendment guarantees a speedy and public trial “by an impartial jury” in criminal prosecutions
- The Seventh Amendment preserves the right to a jury trial in many civil suits where the value in controversy exceeds a minimum threshold
These words were not an afterthought. They were a deliberate response to a world in which decisions about liberty and property were often made by:
- Kings
- Appointed judges loyal to those in power
- Bureaucrats behind closed doors
The founders of this country chose something different. They chose to trust ordinary citizens with extraordinary power over life‑changing decisions.
When juries decide:
- Corporations can be told to pay what they owe
- Governments can be told they have gone too far
- Individuals can be cleared when the evidence does not justify a conviction
When jury trials shrink to a rare event, that power shrinks too.
Why Trial Experience Changes the Conversation
When the other side knows that Pacyga Trial Lawyers will actually walk into a courtroom and pick a jury:
- The tone of mediation changes
- Lowball offers lose their force
- Arbitration and “take it or leave it” proposals are easier to reject
- Settlement talks start from a more realistic understanding of risk
That is the difference between:
- A lawyer who only negotiates, and
- A lawyer who negotiates with a real trial as the credible alternative
For clients, that difference can mean:
- A settlement that reflects the full value of an injury, not just what an insurance company feels like paying today
- A plea offer that is actually worth considering, not just the standard deal everyone gets
- The confidence that, if no fair offer appears, the case can and will be put in front of a jury
This is not about being reckless. It is about being ready.
The Cost of Protecting the Right to a Jury Trial
Trying cases is not easy. It is not always profitable. It is demanding in every way.
That is exactly why so many lawyers quietly step away from it.
Pacyga Trial Lawyers has built its practice on a different foundation:
- Accepting that trial work is hard, and choosing to do it anyway
- Investing real money in experts, investigations, and exhibits when a case deserves to be tried
- Carrying the emotional and physical load of standing in front of juries again and again
- Treating the jury trial not as a last resort, but as a right worth using
Because the system that Minnesota and the United States are about to celebrate each Fourth of July only functions if people still choose to use that right:
- Clients who are willing to stand up and say, “Let the jury decide.”
- Citizens who answer jury summonses and take their role seriously.
- Lawyers who keep their trial skills sharp instead of letting them rust.
What This Means for You or Your Family Member
If you or someone you love has been injured or is facing criminal charges, there are some practical questions to ask before hiring any lawyer or law firm:
- When was the last time you tried a case to a verdict?
Not just filed it, not just went to mediation. All the way to a jury verdict. - How many jury trials have you handled in the last few years?
A single trial many years ago is not enough. The skills need to be current. - Are you willing to take my case to trial if the other side refuses to be fair?
The answer should be clear and direct. - What resources are you prepared to invest if a trial becomes necessary?
Experts, investigations, demonstrative exhibits: these matter.
A law firm that is not prepared to answer those questions is not prepared to fully protect you.
Pacyga Trial Lawyers is built for the cases where the right to a jury trial matters most. The firm understands the numbers. The firm sees the trend lines. Most of all, the firm knows that the only way to keep this right alive is to use it.
Your Case Deserves More Than a Bluff
Somewhere in Minnesota right now, someone has been hurt through no fault of their own. Somewhere else, someone is staring at criminal charges that could change the rest of their life.
Both of them have a right that generations fought and died to secure:
- The right to stand in front of neighbors
- The right to be judged by a jury of their peers
- The right not to have their fate decided only by a government bureau, an insurance company’s calculator, or a private arbitrator behind closed doors
That right will not defend itself.
It survives because clients invoke it, citizens serve on juries, and trial lawyers keep walking into courtrooms even when it would be easier not to.
When a client or a family member’s future is on the line, a bluff is not enough. The case deserves a firm that actually tries cases. The case deserves real leverage built on real trial experience.
Pacyga Trial Lawyers stands ready to use the jury trial right that built this system in the first place.
If you or a loved one is facing that decision, reach out. Discuss the case. Ask the hard questions about trial experience. Make sure the person sitting next to you at the defense or plaintiff’s table is prepared to walk all the way into that courtroom with you.
Your rights are worth nothing less.