In this course you will learn how to try a civil case in federal court.

I will be teaching this course IN PERSON in Room 201 on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 10:00 to 11:40. But the course will also be available remotely via Zoom. The Law School administration will be contacting you to find out which option you'd prefer.

There are two required books:

(1) O'CONNOR'S FEDERAL RULES—CIVIL TRIALS (Thomson Reuters), which I'll refer to as your "Rules Handbook." This book contains all of the rules and statutes that you'll be learning this semester. It also contains "commentaries" that provide helpful instruction on how to carry out many of the procedural maneuvers that we'll study. Please purchase either the 2021 edition (ISBN 9781539210566) or the 2020 edition (ISBN 9781539208990).

(2) Erichson, INSIDE CIVIL PROCEDURE (3d ed. 2018) (Wolters Kluwer) (ISBN 9781454892526). This book provides a clear, concise overview of all the topics we'll study this semester.

As you can see, I teach this course without a traditional casebook. Instead, I have created 48 "Problems" that pose real-world questions in specific factual settings. Answering my questions—i.e., applying the rules and statutes to those fact patterns—will be the main way that you learn Civil Procedure. We will certainly read some cases in this class, but those cases (and all of the Problems) will be posted on my course web page, which will be up and running on the Law School's website at least one week before the semester begins. (Specifically, you'll find it among the "Online Course Materials" after clicking on "More" and then on "Academics.") The password for gaining access to my course web page is 513oneill21.

How will you know what to read for each class? The reading assignments are not in my Syllabus. Instead, the reading assignments appear on the first page of each Problem. After every class session, I will send you an email message telling you which Problems we'll cover in our next class session. The Problems drive this course.

How will you make use of the two books listed above? The Rules Handbook will provide the resources you'll need to answer almost every question posed by my Problems. INSIDE CIVIL PROCEDURE will give you a concise, big-picture understanding of every major topic to be covered in this course. As we move through the semester, the Problems will direct you to read an excerpt from INSIDE CIVIL PROCEDURE every time we enter a new section of this course.

In our first few class sessions, we won't be doing any Problems at all. Instead, I'll give you an introduction to the Civil Rules and to the path of a civil suit.

For our first class session, please read the following materials in your Rules Handbook:

(1) United States Constitution, Article III, section 1, and the first four lines of section 2. Rules Handbook—2021 edition at 1743, 2020 edition at 1697.

(2) The Rules Enabling Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2071(a) and 2072(a). Rules Handbook—2021 edition at 1664, 2020 edition at 1619–20.

(3) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 1 and 3. Rules Handbook—2021 edition at 988–89, 2020 edition at 946–47. Don't worry about the publisher's "Annotations," which take up a lot of space. Simply focus on the text of each rule. (Rule 1 is only two sentences long; Rule 3 is only one sentence long.) If I want you to read an annotation this semester, I will assign it.

(4) Finally, please scan the table of contents to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which will give you an overview of their scope. Rules Handbook—2021 edition at 987–88, 2020 edition at 945–46.

I look forward to seeing you at our first class session—on Wednesday morning, January 20, commencing at 10:00 in Room 201. In the meantime please read my Syllabus, which offers more details on how I will teach this course. (The Syllabus is attached below.)