December 2021

The Seventh Amendment

The Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution is the section of the Bill of Rights that guarantees a jury trial for civil cases in the federal courts. When the Framers wrote the Bill of Rights, they understood how important it was to have a fair court system, so they made sure that the right to have a trial by jury was a fundamental law of the country. They desired a  different approach from England, where English judges were servants under the King of England. These judges were often biased towards the King, and because of this, their rulings were not always fair. During the Act of Settlement 1701, English judges won their independence from the king, but judges in the American colonies were still biased towards the king. King George III got rid of trials by juries in the Colonies, which made the colonists very upset which was just another item that led to the American Revolution.

The Framers wanted to ensure that people seeking damages of $20 or more had the right to trial by jury, “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved”. When the Seventh Amendment was written in the 1700s, $20 was considered a lot of money. Today, any disputes that involve amounts less than $75,000 will not be handled in a federal court.

The amendment also says: “And no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law”. Essentially it is stating that acts and evidence made by one jury may not be undone by another and ensuring that if  a person goes to court, he will always go to a court recognized by the government.

The Seventh Amendment in its’ entirety reads as follows:

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.