Rules of civil procedure govern everything that happens outside of criminal proceedings. This Nutshell provides a road map to navigating civil procedure rules and helps build a foundation for understanding the overall picture. Topics discussed include: jurisdiction, venue, and other court-selection issues; pleading, discovery, summary judgment, and other pretrial matters; adjudication, judgments, and appeals; multi-party/multi-claim proceedings, including class actions and multidistrict litigation; plus standing, the Erie doctrine, arbitration, and other important procedural issues. The new edition covers all the subjects dealt with in today's civil procedure courses, whether four or five or six hours in length.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: Nutshells
Publication Date: 08/08/2022

Mary Kay Kane, California-San Francisco

Arthur R. Miller, New York University School of Law

Adam N. Steinman, Texas A&M University School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
  • Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

  • The latest Supreme Court decisions on civil procedure, including its 2021 decision on personal jurisdiction, Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court
  • The 2018 Federal Rules amendments on class action settlements
  • A new section on arbitration that covers the Supreme Court's recent line of cases on the Federal Arbitration Act
  • Other developments on standing, appellate procedure, and multidistrict litigation

Learn more about this series.