25-7-301. Order of trial. When the jury has been sworn, the trial shall 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 his case and the evidence by which he expects to sustain it.
     (2) The adverse party may then, or at the opening of his case, briefly state his defense and the evidence he expects to offer in support of it.
     (3) The party who has the burden of proof shall first produce his evidence; the adverse party will then produce his evidence.
     (4) The parties will 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 such charge only such instructions as are passed upon and settled at such settlement. In charging the jury, the court shall give to it all matters of law which 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 must commence and may conclude the argument. If several defendants having several defenses appear by different counsel, the court must 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.

     History: 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.