Rule 66.02.Separate Trial.

Rule 66.02 gives a court the flexibility to split a case into separate trials instead of resolving every claim and issue in one proceeding. The court may order a separate trial of any claim, cross-claim, counterclaim, or third-party claim, of any separate issue, or of any number of claims, cross-claims, counterclaims, third-party claims, or issues, whenever separating them serves the convenience of the parties or the court, avoids prejudice to a party, or is conducive to expedition and economy. The rule’s history notes that the “expedition and economy” language was added to an earlier version of the rule, expanding the grounds beyond convenience and prejudice alone.

Ordering a separate trial does not eliminate any claim or issue; it only changes the order and grouping in which the case gets tried, letting a court isolate, for example, a threshold liability question from a more complicated damages inquiry, or separate a claim that risks prejudicing the jury against a party from the rest of the case.