Art. 1733.Demand For Jury Trial; Bond For Costs

Getting a jury trial in Louisiana takes more than asking for one. Article 1733 pairs the written demand with a payment obligation: the party demanding a jury must also post a bond, in the amount and by the deadline the court later fixes under Article 1734, to cover the added cost of trying the case to a jury instead of a judge. That combination — demand plus payment — is a genuine point of departure from federal practice, where a timely written demand alone secures the right without any bond.

The article carves out an easier path for a specific category of case: a suit for damages arising from a delictual or quasi-delictual action, where the petitioner stipulates or judicially admits that the claim exceeds ten thousand dollars but comes in under fifty thousand dollars. There, a party can secure a jury by filing the demand and posting a flat five-thousand-dollar cash deposit within sixty days of filing the request, rather than waiting on the court to set a bond amount later. Missing that deposit deadline waives the jury right, and the court can still order a supplemental bond or deposit closer to trial if the flat amount turns out to be short.

Timing matters on both ends. The demand itself must be filed no later than ten days after service of the last pleading directed to any jury-triable issue, or after the court grants a motion withdrawing an earlier jury demand — giving a party a fresh window to demand a jury once the pleadings settle. And once a jury has been demanded, backing out of it is not informal: a motion to withdraw the demand must be in writing.