Rule 3.1552.Presentation of evidence

Standard rules of evidence were not built with a five-hour trial in mind, so Rule 3.1552 gives the parties room to adapt them. The baseline is permissive: parties may offer evidence that is relevant and material to the dispute. Beyond that baseline, they can agree, either in the consent order or through stipulations reached at the pretrial conference, to modify how the ordinary rules of evidence apply — an option grounded directly in the expedited jury trial statutes starting with Code of Civil Procedure section 630.01. The rule pushes the parties to lock in as many of these modes and methods of presentation as feasible before trial starts, rather than sorting them out while the clock is running.

Objections still have their place. Rule 3.1552(b) requires evidentiary objections and motions to exclude evidence to be raised in a timely manner, which in practice usually means at the pretrial conference described in Rule 3.1548(f), where objections to previously exchanged documentary evidence get resolved. But failing to object before trial does not forfeit the right to object at trial — the rule preserves that option except where Rule 3.1548(f) specifically says otherwise, so a party is not permanently locked out just because an issue did not surface earlier.