Rule 13.4.Conclusion

Rule 13.4 ties the right to open and close argument to who carries the burden of proof. In the ordinary civil case, that is the plaintiff, and the rule rewards that burden with the most valuable positions in argument — the plaintiff speaks first and speaks last, sandwiching the defendant’s argument in between.

That default flips in two situations: if the defendant puts on no evidence at all, or if the defendant concedes the plaintiff’s prima facie case outright. In either scenario, the defendant — not the plaintiff — gets to open and conclude instead. The logic tracks the same burden-of-proof principle from the other direction: once the defendant is not contesting the evidentiary record the plaintiff built, the case effectively turns on whatever the defendant is arguing, so the defendant gets the last word on it.