This guide walks a federal civil case through trial, from the final pretrial conference to the judgment that sets up the appeal. It explains how the Rule 16(e) pretrial order supersedes the pleadings and quietly decides most of what the jury will ever hear, how motions in limine and Rule 702/Daubert challenges narrow the field, and how jury selection, Batson, and the mechanics of voir dire actually work in civil cases. It then covers the trial itself: the order of proof, the rules of examination, laying foundations and admitting exhibits, cross-examination and impeachment, expert testimony, and the discipline of objecting and making offers of proof so that Fed. R. Evid. 103 preserves your error rather than burying it. It treats Rule 50(a) motions for judgment as a matter of law, the charge conference and the choice among general, special, and general-with-interrogatories verdict forms under Rule 49, closing argument and its limits, deliberations and Allen charges, and the post-trial motions under Rules 50(b), 59, and 60 that convert a loss at trial into an issue on appeal. A running commercial hypothetical, Ashford Systems v. Bellwether Corp., grounds each stage, and the guide closes with the bench-trial variant under Rule 52 and the traps that cost parties their appellate rights.