Rule 708.Separate Trials

Rule 708 closes Part VII in a single sentence: for convenience, to avoid prejudice, or to expedite and economize, the court may order a separate trial of one or more separate issues, claims, cross-claims, counterclaims, or third-party claims.

Three grounds

They are independent. Convenience covers the case where one issue can be tried in an hour and another needs three days with out-of-state witnesses. Avoiding prejudice matters where evidence admissible on one issue would distort another. Expedition and economy covers the issue whose resolution may end the case or reshape the rest of it.

Where it earns its keep

Family cases separate along natural seams. Custody and parenting time can be tried before property and debt, because children's arrangements should not wait for a business valuation. The validity of a premarital or property settlement agreement can be tried first, because if it holds, most of the property trial disappears. Grounds and property are separable. A Rule 210 counterclaim or Rule 211 third-party claim that shares little with the family issues can be tried on its own.

What it is not

Separation is not consolidation (Rule 108), which merges related cases, nor coordination (Rule 106), which brings related family files before one judge. It is division inside one case.

And separation does not by itself produce an appealable judgment. Rule 802 governs when a judgment enters, and a judgment on fewer than all claims needs the certification Rule 802 provides before Rule 813 permits an appeal.