§ 25-1315.01.Motion for directed verdict; joinder; effect; requisites.

A directed verdict motion is a request that the court take a case away from the jury and rule as a matter of law because the evidence, viewed most favorably to the non-moving party, cannot support a verdict in their favor. Section 25-1315.01 addresses the moment when a party moves for one at the close of the opponent’s evidence — a natural point to test whether the case should even go further.

Making that motion does not lock the moving party out of presenting their own case if the motion fails. The statute allows a party who moved for a directed verdict at the close of the opponent’s evidence to offer evidence in the event the motion is not granted, without having reserved the right to do so in advance, and to the same extent as if the motion had never been made. The trial continues as though the motion had not interrupted it.

The section also protects the jury trial right more broadly. A denied motion for directed verdict is not a waiver of trial by jury, even where every party in the case has moved for a directed verdict — the fact that both sides think the evidence entitles them to win as a matter of law does not convert the case into one decided by the court instead of the jury. Finally, the motion itself has to do real work: it must state the specific grounds on which it rests, not just assert that a verdict should be directed.