Civil Procedure

Civil Procedure—the “rules” part of the required, first-year Legal Process and Civil Procedure sequence—covers various topics that arise in the pre- and post-trial stages of civil litigation. We will focus on federal procedural statutes and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which have served as models for procedural rules in many other jurisdictions. The course will cover:

Pleading

the documents (pleadings and related motions) by which litigation is initiated, defined, and sometimes disposed of

Joinder of claims and parties – and – supplemental jurisdiction

how litigation may be structured when it involves multiple claims and parties and the extent of federal courts’ power to hear particular claims in the litigation as structured;

Pre-trial discovery

the means by which parties obtain information prior to trial;

Summary judgment

disposition of issues or claims through a final judgment on the merits without trial

Preclusive Effects of Judgments

limitations on the parties’ ability to re-litigate matters that have been decided in a prior action.