On November 18, 1998, the California Supreme Court denied review of a court of appeal decision that failed to give effect to a jury trial waiver agreement between Exxon Corporation and the State of California and the City of Long Beach, ruling that the waiver is valid only for the original trial and not any retrial. WLF argued in its submission filed on October 22, 1998 that the issue of jury waiver, and how it was resolved by the court of appeal, are important to the business community because many commercial disputes are litigated without juries by agreement or are otherwise resolved by the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms. ADR provides for more expeditious and less costly means of resolving commercial, employment, and other disputes that ordinarily would consume enormous legal and judicial resources.
