Description: Four Credits. Analysis of a federal civil action from commencement through trial including consideration of the respective roles of judge and lawyers; subject-matter and personal jurisdiction, venue, pleading, motions, discovery and joinder of parties and of claims; trial; judgments; and post-trial motions; and choice of law in the federal courts.
Syllabus |
Assignments/
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Exams/ Feedback |
Projects/ Feedback |
Graphics/ Handouts |
I will hold a review session on Thursday, April 23, 2009, from 2:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in room 180
I will be in my office for office hours on Friday, April 24, 2009, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m.
REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS:
1) Marcus, Redish and Sherman's Civil Procedure: A Modern Approach, UPDATED FOURTH EDITION Ed. (West 2008) (note that this is a new edition that uses the newly-redacted Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; the 2005 Fourth Edition IS NOT ACCEPTABLE);
(2) West's Federal Rules of Civil Procedure-2008-2009 Educational Edition,
Amendments Received to May 13, 2008 (with the maroon cover).
The syllabus, reading assignments, notes and other materials related to our course, including old exams, will be available in my webpage at: http://nersp.osg.ufl.edu/~malavet.
Assignments:
For our first sessions on Monday, January 12, 2009, please review the Syllabus (which will be updated during the second week of January), and read the Dupont Handout that is posted in the website and pages 1-3 in the casebook, "Choosing a System of Procedure".
For our second sessions on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 read Band's Refuse, pp. 3-18 for the first hour, and Kothe v. Smith, pp. 18-26 for the second hour.
As noted in the exam instructions, examination review will start on Thursday, September 25, 2008. The Feedback Memorandum will be available beginning on that date, when I post it here. You may pick up your exam from me after the feedback memo is posted.
I will not discuss grades or the exam in any way prior to that date.
I will not reply to any communication regarding grade or examination review prior to that date.
That said, I encourage you to review your examination during the Fall semester after I post the feedback memorandum. Exam review is especially important for those of you who receive a grade of C+ or less. Recent statistical studies indicate that under our current grading curve students who have a cumulative GPA below 3.0 are at the bottom of the class and run a significantly higher risk of failing the Florida Bar Examination. This is a matter of great concern to me.
Also, at this time of the year, a particular phenomenon usually occurs: students stop speaking to me. This phenomenon appears to be related to receiving a low grade. I find this disappointing for two reasons. First, grading is not personal (for me), I do not judge you as a human being based on your grade. But, second, you earn the grade that you get and you need to make sensible choices based on your actual performance. Reviewing your examination is a major part of learning how to improve your grades, and, more importantly, a part of the process of assessing whether or not you are getting the maximum out of your legal education.
Required Class Materials: Marcus, Redish and Sherman's Civil Procedure: A Modern Approach, 4th Ed. (West 2005); West's Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—2007-2008 Educational Edition, Amendments Received to May 21, 2007 (with the purple cover).
Reading Assignments are now posted in the Assignments and Notes section.
Also, please take note that I have changed my office hours on Wednesdays from 4-5:30 to 2:00-3:30 p.m., which I believe will be a more convenient time for students.
The practical project has bee posted. [Click Here to See it]
The documents are DUE ON OR BEFORE TUESDAY MARCH 27, 2007.
This year you will all draft a complaint, but you will also include in parenthesis after each allegation paragraph what you believe the defense will answer to your complaint.
All the html documents with class notes, as well as all supplementary files (mostly graphics), are now in a single subdirectory. You can copy the contents of the subdirectory http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu./~malavet/civpro/notes.