Civil Procedure Outline 

Basics 

• Rule 4: Summons – primary authority for federal assertion of personal jurisdiction; generally federal courts have no reach past states in which district courts sit, except where federal statutes explicitly provide for nationwide jurisdiction in certain situations.  Also allows for claims “arising under” federal law.
• Rule 4(d): Waiver of Service – D waives formal service of summons and gives up objections to sufficiency of summons; if D does not waive service he must pay fee for service and if D waives, he gets additional time (from 20-60 days) for answering complaint.
• Rule 7(a): allows for 3 forms of pleadings: complaint, answer, reply
• P can only file reply to counterclaim
• Rule 8(c):  requires a pleader to file a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that he pleader is entitled to relief”
• Rule 11: person who signs pleading, motion, or paper (usually the attorney), must certify that allegations were made “to the best of that person’s knowledge, information, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances.”
• Rule 12: D’s motions to dismiss; some objections must be filed in timely manner or waived
• Rule 12(b): Pre-Answer motions
• Rule 12(e): request for clarification/more definite statement of P’s complaint
• Rule 15: Amendments; balances two tensions – easy amendment allowing for changing view of the case as it develops; and notion of “prejudice” that at some point a party should be able to pin down the other side
• Rule 26(b)(1): gives parties right to discover “any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action”
• Rule 56: Motions for summary judgment granted if record “show[s] that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law”
• Rule 50: combination of directed verdict and j.n.o.v.; “judgment as a matter of law;” moving party thinks opposition has failed to make case, asks judge to take case away from jury to prevent verdict; can only ask for j.n.o.v. as review of directed verdict
• Rule 51: mechanism by which JURY INSTRUCTIONS are created – lawyer needs to put judge on notice as to instructions you want and must object to other side’s jury instructions
• Rule 59: New trials
• Rule 57: Declaratory Relief

 

Introductory Material

General Rules from Intro

• Counterclaims (Rule 13)
• (a) Compulsory counterclaims: D making claim against P for the same cause of action
• (b) Permissive Counterclaims: D making claim against D for different transaction or occurrence
• (g) Crossclaims: claim by one party against co-party arising out of same cause of action as original or counterclaim
• Impleading (Rule 14) – bringing in 3^rd parties Ds to pass liability to
• (a) D brings in person who is liable to D (as 3^rd party P) for all or part of original P’s claim
• (b) P can bring in 3^rd party D if D has filed counterclaim against him
• Interpleading (Rule 22) –
• Permissive Joinder (Rule 20) – allows either party to expand the size of the lawsuit by pulling in nonparties as party Ps or Ds, deals with who may be joined; idea of choice of the P or D - voluntariness
• Ps: if assert “right to relief jointly, severally, or in the alternative in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question of law or fact common to al these persons will arise in the action”
• Ds: “if there is asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative, any right to relief in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question of law or fact common to all Ds will arise in the action”
• Compulsory Joinder (Rule 19a) – bringing a party into the lawsuit by order of the court (not voluntarily), even if opposing party does not want him there, idea of bringing in parties that will be affected by the results of the case
• Subjective criteria
• Intervention (Rule 24) – allows nonparty to expand lawsuit by jumping in 
• When P does not wish to join the party and D does not wish to or cannot convince the court that the party should be joined
• Class Action (Rule 23) – joins large number of Ps or Ds
• Set Aside Judgment (Rule 60b) – based on mistakes, inadvertence, excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, fraud, etc. -  narrow grounds for setting aside a verdict
• Res Judicada (claim preclusion)
• Collateral Estoppel (issue preclusion)
• Appeals Process