This course will examine civil procedures and the court system, including the role of judges, attorneys, and juries. Students will learn how to draft complaints and answers, conduct pre-trial investigation, and the preparation of pre-trial motions.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand pleading: the documents (pleadings and related motions) by which litigation is initiated, defined, and sometimes disposed of.
• Learn how to draft complaints and answers, conduct pre-trial investigation, and the preparation of pre-trial motions.
• Understand joinder of claims and parties and supplemental jurisdiction: how litigation may be structured when it involves multiple claims and parties and the extent of federal courts’ power to hear particular claims in the litigation as structured.
• Learn about pre-trial discovery: the means by which parties obtain information prior to trial.
• Learn about summary judgment: disposition of issues or claims through a final judgment on the merits without trial.
• Comprehend preclusive effects of judgments: limitations on the parties’ ability to re-litigate matters that have been decided in a prior action.