As amended through February 1, 2024
Rule 225.1 - Jury Trial Summation(a) Unless the trial judge shall otherwise grant leave, only one attorney may sum up for any party.(b) In trials which involve only one plaintiff and one defendant, if evidence has been received from each party, plaintiff's attorney shall first sum up and defendant's attorney shall then follow. Plaintiff's attorney may then speak solely in rebuttal. If no evidence has been received from the defendant, the same order of summation shall apply, except that plaintiff's attorney shall not speak in rebuttal.(c) In trials which involve a third-party action, if evidence has been received from each party, the plaintiff's attorney shall first sum up as in (b). Defendant's attorney shall next sum up both for defendant, as in (b), and for defendant as third-party plaintiff. The attorney for the third party (i.e., additional) defendant shall next sum up as the nature of his third-party defense may require. The attorney for third-party plaintiff may then reply in rebuttal and thereafter the attorney for the original plaintiff may reply in rebuttal of only the arguments made by the original defendant.(d) In multi-party actions and in actions which involve third-party actions, if one or more of the parties offers no evidence, the order of summation shall be determined by the trial judge.(e) In actions involving more than one plaintiff, defendant or third-party defendant, the trial judge shall determine the order of speaking.Chest. Cnty. Ct. Comm. Plea. R. 225.1