The fate of the American civil jury trial has been a recurring obsession here at the Litigation Daily.

Over the past couple of years, we've spilled column ink pondering what the relative dearth of cases decided by a jury—particularly in federal court—means for American democracy, the legal profession and law firms seeking to build litigation practices capable of trying cases with the highest stakes.  

But our colleague Avalon Zoppo, who covers the federal appellate courts and the judiciary, has come at the topic from another angle: In a recent installment of her excellent, bi-weekly Bench Report briefing, Avalon noted fewer jury verdicts mean fewer appellate decisions directly addressing trial topics, including evidentiary issues and jury instructions. Indeed, she wrote that "whether the decline is affecting the development of the law hasn't been as widely explored" as those topics we've touched on before.