On July 29, 2020, Judge David Cowan of the Los Angeles County Superior Court (“Los Angeles Superior Court”) lifted a stay that it had previously entered enforcing a forum selection provision designating jurisdiction in the Delaware Court of Chancery or the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. After the stay order was entered in 2017, Plaintiff William West (“West”) filed an action in Delaware state court, which was then transferred to the Court of Chancery. In agreeing to lift the stay, Judge Cowan found that continued enforcement of the forum selection provision would diminish California resident West’s California Constitutional right to a jury trial, because the Court of Chancery does not conduct non-advisory jury trials. Typically, California courts give effect to mandatory forum selection provisions, and a party opposing enforcement bears the burden of showing that enforcement would be “unreasonable or unfair.” Where a plaintiff’s claims are based on “unwaivable rights created by California statutes,” however, the burden shifts to the party seeking to enforce the clause to show that litigating in the designated non-California forum does not diminish plaintiff’s “unwaivable rights.” Applying two California cases that held (1) pre-dispute jury waivers are unenforceable under California law and (2) a plaintiff’s demand for a jury trial implicates fundamental and inviolate rights, Judge Cowan held that enforcing the Delaware forum selection clause prevented Plaintiff West from a jury trial and thus was an impermissible pre-dispute waiver of jury trial. Accordingly, Judge Cowan lifted the stay, and West’s claims were allowed to proceed in California notwithstanding the forum selection clause.