Google’s $2.3 million check helped the company get a trial by judge instead of jury

Google’s $2.3 million check helped the company get a trial by judge instead of jury

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

The antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department and eight states seeking to break up Google’s alleged adtech monopoly will be heard by a judge this fall, as the company preferred. The government’s lawyers had included a damages claim in their lawsuit and pursued a trial by jury. Jury trials can be more unpredictable, like Epic’s courtroom win over Google last year, and a legal expert told The Verge that if the government was successful, it could make Google more likely to settle the case.

But Reuters reports that won’t happen after the company filed a copy of a $2.3 million cashier’s check — without admitting any liability or wrongdoing — that it said would be enough to cover triple the monetary damages requested by the government, if necessary, plus interest.

A photocopy of a cashier’s check for maximum damages, filed to the court docket for the DOJ’s ad tech antitrust action against Google.

Now that US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has ruled on the matter, she’s scheduled a bench trial for September 9th to hear arguments from both sides. Meanwhile, the DOJ and Google continue to wait for a ruling on their big search antitrust showdown after making their closing arguments about a month ago.