Rule 30, Section 5 — Order of trial

Text of the provision

Sec. 5. Order of trial. — Subject to the provisions of [S]ection 2 of Rule 31, and unless the court for special reasons otherwise directs, the trial shall be limited to the issues stated in the pre-trial order and shall proceed as follows: (a) The plaintiff shall adduce evidence in support of his or her complaint; (b) The defendant shall then adduce evidence in support of his or her defense, counterclaim, cross-claim and third-party complaint; (c) The third-party defendant, if any, shall adduce evidence of his or her defense, counterclaim, cross-claim and fourth-party complaint; (d) The fourth-party, and so forth, if any, shall adduce evidence of the material facts pleaded by them; (e) The parties against whom any counterclaim or cross-claim has been pleaded, shall adduce evidence in support of their defense, in the order to be prescribed by the court; (f) The parties may then respectively adduce rebutting evidence only, unless the court, for good reasons and in the furtherance of justice, permits them to adduce evidence upon their original case; and (g) Upon admission of the evidence, the case shall be deemed submitted for decision, unless the court directs the parties to argue or to submit their respective memoranda or any further pleadings. If several defendants or third-party defendants, and so forth, having separate defenses appear by different counsel, the court shall determine the relative order of presentation of their evidence.

2019 Rules of Civil Procedure (A.M. No. 19-10-20-SC), Rule 30, Section 5. Reproduced verbatim and verified word-for-word against the Supreme Court's official text and the ChanRobles rendering.