About Civil Procedure resources

This page contains links to numerous resources on the subjects we'll study this year, such as subject-matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, and much, much more. Resources include handouts, study questions, flowcharts, and problem sets. The problem sets include explanations that will go online after we study each topic.

Law school basics

The basics

The basics, such as marking up statutes, and life in and outside of law school.

Examinations

How do you prepare for exams? Practice, practice, practice. This area includes tips on taking exams along with practice essays and actual past essay questions.

Screencast videos

This area has a number of "screencast" YouTube videos that I add from time to time. The videos include presentation of hypotheticals, statutory markups, and audio commentary.

J.D. review videos

I've posted many YouTube review videos for my J.D. students. Some are comprehensive reviews and others are topic-specific.

MBE review videos

These YouTube reviews were done for recent graduates preparing for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). Bar exam reviews tend to be less detailed than J.D.; nevertheless, you may find them to be helpful.

Original subject-matter jurisdiction

Numerous study resources regarding diversity jurisdiction, federal question jurisdiction, and removal jurisdiction. There are problem sets, videos, and much more. Supplemental jurisdiction resources can also be found further down this page.

Personal jurisdiction

Personal jurisdiction is probably the biggest issue we study in the first semester, and for many students, it's the most difficult. One reason is because personal jurisdiction tracks the legal development of a Constitutional concept, "Due Process," over the course of nearly 140 years of case-law development, and the cases are not always clear or consistent. This section has problem sets, study questions, tables, flowcharts, and more. There are also practice essay questions. Finally, you might find the "Coggle" flowchart to be particularly helpful as you work through the doctrine.

Notice and service of process

A much shorter part of our studies. Here you can find study questions.

Venue, transfer, and forum non conveniens

Study questions, along with a problem set.

FRCP mnemonics

In studying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP"), it's important to think about the purposes of each Rule. To help you understand what the Rules do and why, this section contains a number of memory devices, or "mnemonics," to help you understand.

Pleading and relation back

Hypos to help you work through the Iqbal "plausibility" standard, an answer drafting exercise, relation-back resources, and more.

Joinder

Handouts and flowcharts on required joinder, interpleader, study questions on class actions, and more.

Supplemental jurisdiction

This section completes our studies of subject matter jurisdiction, a topic we begin our studies with in the Fall. To understand supplemental jurisdiction ("SJ"), it is necessary to first study joinder, so we study SJ in the Spring. Resources here include handouts on SJ basics, the "ice cream" analogy, the "contamination" rule, aggregation, SJ analysis, a problem set, and a practice essay.

Discovery

Many lawyers spend significant time and money on discovery, and we will read the discovery rules closely. Ironically, you'll find that these rules are lengthy but not as hard to understand as other rules. The reason the rules are so lengthy is that they try to provide guidance for common discovery scenarios. To help you work through the maze of discovery rules, this section provides many study questions as a guide. Think of them as the map for a discovery treasure hunt.

Erie doctrine & Rules Enabling Act

This is another difficult topic, and numerous resources are provided here to help you. There are study questions, handouts, a problem set, and another "Coggle" style flowchart.

Voluntary dismissal & summary judgment

Handouts on types of summary judgment, comparisons of dispositive motions, study questions on voluntary dismissal, and a practice essay.

Seventh Amendment right to jury trial

Handout and study questions.

Trial & post-trial motions

Handout on dispositive motions and a problem set.

Claim & issue preclusion

Handouts on finality, issue preclusion, and non-mutual issue preclusion, along with problem sets.

Appeals

Problem set on a variety of common appeals scenarios, including the final judgment rule, collateral order doctrine, interlocutory appeals, and more.

Civil Procedure study resources