24.5.332    CONDUCT OF TRIAL

(1) Trials will be held in courtrooms when available or any other designated place.

(2) The court conducts trials in the same manner as a trial without a jury. Trials must proceed in the following order unless the court, for good cause and special reasons, otherwise directs.

(a) The party on whom rests the burden of the issues may briefly state the party's case and the evidence by which the party expects to sustain it.

(b) The adverse party may then briefly state the adverse party's defense and the evidence the adverse party expects to offer in support of it, or may wait and do this at the beginning of the adverse party's case-in-chief.

(c) The party on whom rests the burden of the issues shall produce the party's evidence; the adverse party shall then follow with the adverse party's evidence.

(d) The parties shall then be confined to rebuttal evidence, unless the court, for good reasons and in the furtherance of justice, permits either party to offer further evidence in support of its case-in-chief.

History: 2-4-201, MCA; IMP, 2-4-201, 39-71-2901, MCA; NEW, 1983 MAR p. 1715, Eff. 11/26/83; TRANS, from ARM 2.52.332, 1989 MAR p. 2177, Eff. 12/22/89; AMD, 2014 MAR p. 2829, Eff. 3/1/15.