Rule 51.Instructions to Jury — Objection

Rule 15-6-51 opens with the request process. A party may file written requests asking the court to instruct the jury on particular points of law, either at the close of the evidence or at an earlier time the court sets. Once the evidence has closed, a party can still file requests on issues that could not reasonably have been anticipated earlier, and, with the court’s permission, even untimely requests on any issue.

The rule then puts real obligations on the court. Before instructing the jury and before closing arguments, the court must tell the parties what instructions it plans to give and how it plans to rule on their requests. It must also give both sides a chance to object on the record, outside the jury’s hearing, before those instructions and arguments happen. Within that framework, the court has flexibility about timing — it may instruct the jury at any point after trial begins and before the jury is discharged.

Objecting the right way matters. A party who disagrees with an instruction, or with the court’s refusal to give one, has to say so on the record and state distinctly what is being objected to and why. An objection counts as timely if it is made at the opportunity the court provides after disclosing its instructions and rulings — or, for a party who was not told in time, promptly after learning what instruction will be given or refused.

Rule 15-6-51 ties preservation to appellate review. A party can generally assign error only over an instruction that was given if a proper objection was made, or over a refused instruction if a proper request was made and, absent a definitive ruling on the record, a proper objection followed. But the rule leaves room for the court to correct a plain error in the instructions that affects a party’s substantial rights, even when that error was not preserved this way.