Jury Trial Rights for Renters Exist, For Parents, They Don’t.

Yes, tenants in California have jury trial rights before a landlord can evict them — and most renters sign away those rights without ever realizing it. A key case, Guttman v. Chiazor, underscored just how important this protection is. The appellate court held that a judge should not have denied tenants a jury trial during an eviction trial reaffirming the Legislature’s intent to safeguard this right.

Yet when it comes to something far more consequential – the legal right to your own child — parents are not given any real opportunity at all. Parents who have requested a jury trial as a last, desperate attempt to keep custody of their child(ren) have been denied every single time. In reality, the supposed right to request a jury is “a barren one”: it exists in theory but is never granted in practice in state run “family” courts except in Texas. 

Across California, in every courtroom where a judge can terminate parental rights or remove custody, judges have consistently refused jury requests — and will continue to do so unless the law changes.

RaiseYourRights is working to make jury trials in these cases a true, guaranteed right, just as they are for renters. Join us in making that change.