The summary judgment process provides a method of terminating a case before it is submitted to the jury when only questions of law are involved and there are no genuine issues of fact. When a party to a lawsuit cannot show that there is a fact issue for the jury to determine, the grant of summary judgment to the opposing party does not violate the constitutional right to a jury trial.

A summary judgment is often filed after the parties discover some facts in the discovery process, and one or both parties believe that the facts conclusively establish their right to prevail at trial, and that no reasonable jury could find the facts to be otherwise.

In Kentucky, the summary judgment process is a legal mechanism used to resolve a case without a trial when there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. This process is governed by the Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure (CR) 56. After the discovery phase, where parties gather evidence, a party may file a motion for summary judgment asserting that the facts are undisputed and clearly favor one side's legal position. The court will grant summary judgment if it determines that there is no factual dispute warranting a jury's deliberation and that the moving party is entitled to prevail based on the law. This does not infringe upon the constitutional right to a jury trial, as that right is preserved for cases where factual disputes exist that should be assessed by a jury. Summary judgment is a tool to streamline the legal process by disposing of claims or defenses that lack a factual basis for trial.