Inside Civil Procedure: What Matters and Why, like a great teacher, helps law students understand civil procedure clearly and deeply. Procedural rules and doctrines that at first seem incomprehensible finally make sense when students understand what the rules are trying to do, how they are used in practice, and how they fit into the bigger picture. Unlike oversimplified outlines or lengthy treatises, it actually teaches with clear explanations and features designed to help students master the material. By the end of each chapter, students will have a clear understanding of not only how the rules and doctrines work, but also how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Overviews set up each topic FAQs give straight answers to questions and clear up common mistakes and misconceptions. Sidebars offer insights, study tips, and practice pointers. Step-by-step analyses demonstrate how to apply the material. Chapter summaries provide quick review guides. Connections helps students fit the material with other topics in civil procedure.

"This book represents our efforts, and the efforts of our contributors, to center questions of inequality in the teaching, learning, and practice of civil procedure by shining a light on the ways in which civil procedure may privilege-or silence-voices in our courts"--

This book is a collaborative effort by fourteen law-school professors to provide a deeper understanding of the great civil procedure cases. The professors each wrote a short chapter on one of the cases, retelling the cases in their own voice and by their own method. Each chapter has a fairly consistent structure, with separate sections on: social and legal background of the case; factual background of the case; lower court proceedings in the case; final appellate disposition, including issues, decisions, reasons, and separate opinions; factual postscript to the case; immediate impact of the case on the development of the law (why the case is famous and when it became so); and continuing importance of the case today (why it is still a leading case).The accompanying website, http://civprostories.law.cornell.edu, serves as a research tool for students, academics, and practitioners. The poste

Current Structure of Court Systems; Subject-Matter Jurisdiction; Venue; Personal Jurisdiction; Service of Process; Challenges to Plaintiff's Court Selection; Pleading; Party and Claim Joinder; Discovery; Pretrial Conferences; Summary Judgment; Default Judgment; Voluntary and Involuntary Dismissal; The Trial Process; Jury Trial; Directed Verdicts; Judgments Notwithstanding the Verdict; New Trial Motions; Partial and Conditional New Trials; Relief from Judgments; Securing and Enforcing Judgments; Binding Effect of Judgments; Time for Bringing an Appeal; Mechanics of Appeal; Class Actions; Interpleader; Multidistrict Litigation; Standing, Mootness, and Justiciability; Determining the Governing, Law in Federal Courts; Federal Law in State Courts.