Book II. Ordinary Proceedings · Title V. Trial · Chapter 7. Jury Trial · Last amended 1995 · Last verified July 30, 2026
Acts 1983, No. 534, §1; Acts 1995, No. 661, §1.
Article 1731 opens Louisiana's jury trial chapter by stating the baseline: the right to a jury exists in civil cases. It then immediately points to Article 1732, which carves out a long list of exceptions, so the right announced here is a starting point rather than a guarantee that survives every kind of case.
The article's real work is in Paragraph B, which answers a question that comes up whenever a case has several claims tangled together: what decides whether any particular issue goes to the jury? The answer is the principal demand — its nature and its dollar amount. An incidental demand, such as a reconventional demand or a third-party demand, ordinarily rides along with whatever the principal demand qualifies for, rather than being judged on its own terms.
Paragraph C carves out one exception to that rule. If a defendant's compulsory reconventional demand would independently qualify for a jury on its own facts and amount, it can still go to the jury even if the principal demand cannot. A defendant forced to raise a compulsory counterclaim in the plaintiff's smaller suit is not automatically stripped of a jury for that counterclaim just because the plaintiff's own claim falls under a jury-trial limitation.
No. Article 1731 recognizes the right generally, but Article 1732 excludes an extensive list of case types and smaller claims from jury trial altogether.
The nature and amount of the principal demand, not the nature of each individual issue or incidental demand standing alone.
Yes, if it is a compulsory reconventional demand that independently qualifies for a jury trial on its own facts and amount, Article 1731(C) lets it go to the jury even though the principal demand cannot.