Civil Trial Bifurcated Where Parties Did Not Advise Court of Proper Time Needed To Complete Trial

In the case of Major v. Five Start Equipment, Inc., No. 2020-CV-3550 (C.P. Lacka. Co. Oct. 28, 2024 Nealon, J.), the court addressed a Motion to Bifurcate the liability issues from the damages issues at the trial of a personal injury action involving a motor vehicle accident during which a pedestrian was struck.

In this decision, the court noted that it was the parties' plan to present numerous lay witnesses and expert witnesses. The court ultimately ruled that the liability and damages portions of this action would be split given that there would not be enough time in the allotted trial window in order to hear from all of the witnesses.  This was due, in part, to the parties not originally requesting sufficient within which to complete the trial when the issue of the anticipated length of the trial previously came up at a pre-trial conference.

The court noted that the jury selected for the trial would only decide the issues of liability. If that first jury entered a finding in favor of the Plaintiff, a separate jury would then be called to determine the amount of compensatory damages.

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