Judge Versus Jury in Focus After Google Writes $2.3 Million Check

An unusual procedural move by Alphabet Inc.'s Google highlights the small, but significant, differences between jury and bench trials that will play a role in the outcome of a government antitrust case against the tech giant.

Google paid the maximum damages that some government agencies allegedly suffered due to the company’s conduct. With damages out of the equation, a Virginia federal judge said a jury was no longer needed to decide the other monopoly claims.

The company’s success in fending off a jury trial followed a court loss in December and has taken on even more significance after a huge ...