Rare Advisory Jury May Complicate Musk Appeal: California Brief

Musk–Altman’s ‘Advisory Jury’ and Appeal

Photographer: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

The use of an advisory jury in the Elon Musk–Sam Altman verdict, instead of a single-judge bench trial, could be a crucial element in any challenges to the ruling, Isaiah Poritz reports.

Use of a jury has some clear advantages in supporting the legitimacy of the trial’s outcome, though advisory juries are rarely used and their verdicts technically have “no standing” with a higher court reviewing the case, said Shari Diamond, a law professor at Northwestern University who researches jury processes.

A federal jury took less than two hours to deliver a verdict ...