small claims courts don't have a jury.
If you're suing a giant company and asking for hundreds of millions in damages, they're for sure going to pull out all the stops. It's not My Cousin Vinny.
Dang, I wasn’t picked for jury duty a while ago. At some fraction of a million bucks a day, I’d have been set for a while.
Tongue in cheek of course. Look, I’m intentionally stating my stupidity here, what’s the cost, is it really unavoidable or is it something that these big companies take on by their own decision?
However, if there's a city planning board hearing on your application to remodel your house, you're not entitled to a jury. The IRS can assess penalties without a jury. So it's not as simple as "you have a right to a jury trial." The PTO awarded your patent, a process that might have included multiple appeals, without juries. Not all administrative procedures allow juries.
I attended one day of the Apple v. Samsung trial in San Jose. Google had a "war room" (I assume Apple did, too), which was a suite in a hotel where we had meals brought in, and held all the work product. You can't risk sitting around in a restaurant and having people overhearing and bothering you. The war room has a guard outside 24x7.
Expert witnesses are transported there and housed, and paid anywhere from $300 to $900 an hour. Most of the legal staff don't live in that city and have to travel there. Partners in big law firms bill at $1000 an hour or so.
Big money.