Civil Procedure: Theory and Practice

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on Casebook Connect, including lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities. Access also includes practice questions, an outline tool, and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes.

Using the Socratic method, Civil Procedure: Theory and Practice helps students develop strategic, critical thinking, with introductory text, examples, and hypotheticals that equip them for the challenges of practice. Sophisticated yet straightforward, the text strikes an important balance, providing clear exposition while requiring work to achieve deeper insights. An opening chapter gives an overview of the entire process, using real pleadings and discovery materials in the landmark N.Y. Times v. Sullivan case. The innovative “Anatomy of a Litigation” case study chapter systematically leads students from pleadings to verdict, using leading cases to deepen the connection between the classroom and the courtroom. Civil Procedure: Theory and Practice covers the full range of topics, including in-depth treatment of personal and subject-matter jurisdiction, joinder, preclusion, and alternative dispute resolution. Accessible background material for each major case facilitates analysis, and extensive notes and questions frame deep, conceptual issues.

New to the Sixth Edition:

With the Sixth Edition, we welcome Professor Aaron D. Simowitz of Willamette University College of Law as a co-author and full partner on the casebook. Professor Simowitz is a procedure scholar with particular expertise in personal jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in both domestic and transnational settings.

• Treatment of personal jurisdiction in Chapter 2 has been updated to reflect the Court’s decisions in Ford Motor Company v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court and Bristol Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California.
• Chapter 5 has been refined in modest ways to make it easier for teachers either to use or not use the case study materials contained therein.
• Chapters 7 offers a new section on defense preclusion shaped around the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lucky Brand Dungarees v. Marcel Fashions.
• Chapter 8 expands its discussion of class action doctrine to include recent developments in the implied requirement of ascertainability under Federal Rule 23 and the statute of limitations tolling doctrine of American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah.
• Chapter 10 offers a revised and expanded treatment of the Court’s jurisprudence under the Federal Arbitration Act.

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Socratic method encourages thought, with introductory text, examples, and hypotheticals; and provides students with a starting point to develop strategic and critical thinking skills
• Sophisticated yet straightforward, clear exposition—requiring work to achieve deeper insights
• Comprehensive coverage includes full range of Civil Procedure topics
• Opening overview of entire civil litigation process
• Traditional, comprehensive doctrinal coverage integrated with contextual, strategic lawyering perspectives
• Flexible organization—supports a 3-unit 1-semester class to a 5- or 6-unit class; can be taught over a semester or a year
• Clear overview of civil litigation process—illuminates connection between classroom and courtroom and helps frame deep, conceptual issues
• Straightforward overview of the litigation process
• Excellent case selection, including both bedrock and high-interest cases; carefully edited to provide students a range of analytical experiences and to serve as teaching tools
• Real pleadings and discovery materials introduce basic elements of civil litigation
• Innovative and fact-intensive “Anatomy of a Litigation” case study allows students to apply lessons learned 
• Students systematically move through the process from pleadings to verdict
• Extensive notes and questions help facilitate analysis
• In-depth treatment of personal and subject-matter jurisdiction, joinder, preclusion, and alternative dispute resolution