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Section 25-7-301 – Order of trial

May 13, 2021 | Civil Procedure, Montana

When the jury has been sworn, the trial must proceed in the following order unless the court, for good cause and special reason, otherwise directs:

(1) The party who has the burden of proof may briefly state the party’s case and the evidence by which the party expects to sustain it.
(2) The adverse party may then, or at the opening of the adverse party’s case, briefly state the defense and the evidence that the adverse party expects to offer in support of it.
(3) The party who has the burden of proof shall first produce the party’s evidence, and the adverse party shall then produce the adverse party’s evidence.
(4) The parties shall then be confined to rebutting evidence unless the court, for good reasons in furtherance of justice, permits them to offer evidence in their original case.
(5) When the instructions have been passed upon and settled by the court and before the arguments of counsel to the jury have begun, the court shall charge the jury in writing, giving in the charge only the instructions that are passed upon and settled at the settlement. In charging the jury, the court shall give to the jury all matters of law that the court thinks necessary for the jury’s information in rendering a verdict.
(6) When the jury has been charged, unless the case is submitted to the jury on either side or on both sides without argument, the party upon whom rests the burden of proof shall commence and may conclude the argument. If several defendants having several defenses appear by different counsel, the court shall determine their relative order in the evidence and argument. Counsel, in arguing the case to the jury, may argue and comment upon the law of the case as given in the instructions of the court, as well as upon the evidence in the case.

ยง 25-7-301, MCA

En. Sec. 1, Ch. 34, L. 1907; Sec. 6746, Rev. C. 1907; re-en. Sec. 9349, R.C.M. 1921; Cal. C. Civ. Proc. Secs. 607, 608; re-en. Sec. 9349, R.C.M. 1935; amd. Sec. 84, Ch. 13, L. 1961; R.C.M. 1947, 93-5101; amd. Sec. 96, Ch. 575, L. 1981; amd. Sec. 407, Ch. 56, L. 2009.