§ 662 Provisions applicable to trials by court.

When a judge decides a case without a jury, most of the same trial rules still apply. This means the general procedures used for jury trials, like how evidence gets presented and how witnesses testify, also guide trials where only a judge makes the decision.

The rule makes sense because a trial needs to run in an orderly way no matter who is deciding the outcome. Instead of writing a whole separate set of rules for judge-only trials, the law simply says to use the jury trial rules whenever they fit the situation. If a jury-specific rule truly does not fit a non-jury trial, like rules about choosing or instructing jurors, then that rule would not apply.

For someone involved in a case, this means they can expect the same basic structure and fairness whether their case goes to a jury or just to a judge. The way both sides present their arguments and evidence stays consistent, even though a judge is deciding the facts instead of a jury.