Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The courts will not, generally, have experts testify when their only testimony is repetative of other of your experts. There is a possible exception when you have someone who was involved in the underlying matter so is also a percipient witness.

The Plaintiff has the burden of proof, and, therefore, goes first and calls all of their witnesses. Then the defendant puts on its case and witnesses. It is possible things may go out of order, for example, where there is a problem in scheduling.

An occasional very complex case may call for five expert witnesses to be called by one side, but ordinarily this is likely to result in impermissible cumulative testimony and/or one expert contradicting another and weakening your case. Also, preparing and managing five experts is a tough task even for an experienced trial lawyer. I'd suggest spending some of the money you'll be paying the experts to retain or get advice from a trial attorney. There are many factors that go into deciding what experts to retain and when to use them, and even with a lot of trial experience, it's often a last-minute judgment call when to call each expert and how much testimony to elicit from each. As to trial sequence of events, the most general rule is that plaintiff goes first, then defendant; but within or in addition to that, there are multiple "bites at the apple" through rebuttal, sur-rebuttal, cross-examination, etc., and again, an experienced lawyer will know when an expert may be called to testify, how much time the judge is likely to allow, when the record is adequately complete and when something needs to be added, corrected or rebutted, and so on. Conducting a trial with multiple witnesses is a high-stakes game that calls for professional decision-making. A couple of other thoughts about expert witnesses: (1) are you sure the "experts" you plan to call will qualify as such, and do you know how to qualify them in court? (2) How much experience do your experts have in testifying and in responding to cross-examination, and thus how much time do you need to spend preparing them for trial?

To answer your last question, in the order of trial, the plaintiff presents his or her case. Once the plaintiff "rests," the defendant calls presents his or her case. After the defense rests, the plaintiff has a chance to present rebuttal witnesses. Which witnesses to call during presentation of your case is dependent on strategy, and not some fixed law.