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In the United States, because jury trials tend to be high profile, the general public tends to overestimate the [[frequency]] of jury trials. Approximately 150,000 jury trials are conducted in state courts in the U.S., and an additional 5,000 jury trials are conducted in federal courts. Two-thirds of jury trials are criminal trials, while one-third are civil and "other" (e.g., family, municipal ordinance, traffic). Nevertheless, the vast majority of cases are in fact settled by [[plea bargain]]{{cn|date=May 2010}}, which removes the need for a jury trial.
Some commentators contend that the guilty-plea system unfairly coerces defendants into relinquishing their right to a jury trial. Others contend that there never was a golden age of jury trials, but rather than juries in the early nineteenth century (before the rise of plea bargaining) were "unwitting and reflexive, generally wasteful of public resources and, because of the absence of trained professionals, little more than slow guilty pleas themselves," and that the guilty-plea system that emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century was a superior, more cost-effective method of achieving fair outcomes.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Rise of Guilty Pleas: New York, 1800-1865|author=Mike McConville and Chester Mirsky|journal=Journal of Law and Society|volume=22|number=4|date=Dec., 1995|pages=443-474|publisher=Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Cardiff University|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1410610}}</ref>
==Pros and cons==
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