Filing your answer late, or never filing one at all, does not by itself cost you a jury trial in a Georgia divorce.
What the Statute Actually Requires
OCGA 19-5-1(a) provides that “[u]nless an issuable defense is filed as provided by law and a jury trial is demanded in writing by either party on or before the call of the case for trial,” the judge alone hears and decides all issues in a petition for divorce and permanent alimony.
Two things are needed, and neither is a timely answer. There has to be an issuable defense, and there has to be a written jury demand made on or before the call of the case.
An Issuable Defense Does Not Have to Be an Answer
Blaylock v. Blaylock, 277 Ga. 56 (2003), is the case. A husband acknowledged service of his wife’s divorce complaint but never answered it. After discovery and settlement talks, the wife demanded a jury. The husband moved to strike the demand, arguing that because he had filed no defensive pleadings there was no issuable defense. The trial court struck it.
The Georgia Supreme Court reversed. “Because a defendant is not required to answer formally,” it said, an issuable defense “may be made by a pre-trial order or other pleadings filed as provided by law” – a rule it drew from Trulove v. Trulove, 233 Ga. 896 (1975). The trial court had “acted prematurely by striking Wife’s demand even prior to entry of the pre-trial order.”
A Partial Defense Is Enough
The husband in Blaylock conceded that he owed child support and that his wife was entitled to an equitable share of the marital estate, and wanted only to limit the amounts. That was still an issuable defense, because “[a] defense can be partial, as well as complete.”
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!