805.05.Consolidation; separate trials.

When related lawsuits are pending in the same court, Section 805.05(1)(a) lets the court order a joint hearing or trial of any or all of the claims, order the actions consolidated outright, or make other orders to avoid unnecessary cost or delay, so long as the actions are ones that could have been brought as a single action under Section 803.04. When related actions are pending before different courts instead, Section 805.05(1)(b) lets a party or the court itself move to transfer one of them to the court where the related action is pending, and that transfer happens only by the joint written order of both courts, with a conference of the judges and counsel available by phone under Section 807.13(3).

The section also runs in the opposite direction. Section 805.05(2) lets the court order a separate trial of any claim, cross claim, counterclaim, or third-party claim, or of any number of claims, in furtherance of convenience, to avoid prejudice, or when separate trials would be conducive to expedition or economy. Whichever way the court moves, consolidating or splitting apart, it always has to preserve inviolate the right of trial in the mode to which the parties are entitled.