Civil Procedure in Focus (Aspen Casebook Series)

Civil Procedure in Focus by Jeremy Counseller and Eric Porterfield uses a combination of accessible explanatory text, cases, and other primary legal sources to teach civil procedure, and then provides opportunities for students to apply the law to multiple sets of facts in every chapter. Selected cases illustrate key changes in the law and show how courts have developed and apply doctrine.

The unintimidating approach of this casebook provides a hands-on, experiential learning environment that can be essential to many students’ success. Through practice-based exercises, students learn to apply legal principles and concepts to real-world scenarios. Simply knowing the facts of a benchmark case is not enough; knowing how to apply the doctrine from one case to a different set of facts enhances a` student’s ability to succeed in and after law school.

New to the Second Edition:

• Multiple-choice questions at the end of each chapter
• Discussion of “Snap Removal,” a hot topic currently percolating through the federal court system
• Updates regarding recent US Supreme Court cases regarding personal jurisdiction

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Applying the Concepts and Civil Procedure in Practice exercises. These end-of-chapter exercises encourage students to synthesize the chapter material and apply relevant legal doctrine and code to real-world scenarios. Students can use these exercises for self-assessment or the professor can use them to promote class interaction.
• Real Life Applications.  Every case in a chapter is followed by Real Life Applications, which present a series of questions based on a scenario similar to the facts in the case. Real Life Applications challenge students to apply what they have learned and help prepare them for real-world practice. Professors can use Real Life Applications to spark class discussions or provide them as individual short-answer assignments.
• Case Previews and Post-Case Follow-Ups. To succeed, law students must know how to deconstruct and analyze cases. Case Previews highlight the legal concepts in a case before the student reads it. Post-Case Follow-Ups summarize the important points and go one step further—noting the significance of a case to current law as well as its later ramifications.
• Clear exposition of key concepts in the text that means professors can spend less class time lecturing students on the basics and more time discussing different perspectives on the law, current issues, etc.
• Essay, short-answer, and multiple-choice questions in every chapter
• Practice-based hypotheticals that challenge students to apply doctrine to different fact scenarios
• Exhibits that highlight the relevant rule of law and corresponding legal authority