Under Rule 38, what must a party do to limit which issues are tried by jury?

• A. No action is needed; all issues are tried by jury automatically.
• B. The party must move for relief from a bench trial.
• C. Demand jury on the specific issues to be tried by jury; otherwise, all issues capable of being tried by jury will be.
• D. The court decides which issues go to jury without demand.

Answer: (C)

The key idea is that Rule 38 lets a party control which issues go to a jury by filing a written demand specifically for the issues to be tried by a jury. If you want only certain issues decided by a jury, you must demand a jury trial on those particular issues within the time set by the rule. If you don’t demand jury treatment for an issue, that issue will be tried by the judge.

In practical terms, you can tailor the trial by jury to the issues you select in your demand, and the rest of the issues will be handled in a bench trial by the court. If you fail to demand jury treatment for issues that are triable by jury, those issues will be decided by the court, not by a jury.

So the correct approach to limit which issues are tried by jury is to demand jury on the specific issues to be tried by jury; otherwise, all issues capable of being tried by jury will be.