CivPro Studying Forum

[gobosox]

I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by CivPro and I'm sitting down taking the weekend to go over it. I have the E&E, written by Glannon, but I was wondering if it was worth it to get the Glannon Guide to CivPro. If the guy wrote both books, how different can they be? Anyone tried both?

Also, if anyone has a way of organizing studying or how to structure things besides memorizing the FRCP, that would be very helpful. Found a couple threads on here but nothing very extensive.

Thanks!

[Manteca]

I found Freer's CivPro book to be invaluable. Can't speak to Glannons, though.

[SFSpartan]

It's normal to be confused in Civ. Pro at this juncture, as it tends to be one of those moment of clarity classes. It didn't make any sense for me until Nov. and I got an A.

Memorizing FRCP may be helpful, but it also may be a giant waste of time. For me, it helped to make flowcharts for specific concepts. This will allow you to figure out what questions you need to be asking in a particular context, and lets you break the rules up in an order that makes some logical sense.

Around finals time last year there was a guy that posted a bunch of his own flowcharts, which I found immensely helpful. I think the thread may have been called "paying it forward" or something similar, but I honestly can't remember.

[Mal Reynolds]

I am a devoted member to the Church of Freer.

[Kimikho]

Paying it forward flowcharts: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=220982

[gobosox]

Paying it forward flowcharts: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=220982

Awesome!

[BVest]

Civ Pro was definitely the most confusing subject for me and my study/outline group. It finally started to come together the week after Thanksgiving, but even during the reading period, we went to meet with the prof with what I admitted before we even asked them were very basic questions. In the end, I had the second-highest grade on the exam with 149 out of about 300 possible points (the lowest grade -- something like 67 or 70, got a C). So your confusion is definitely not surprising.

Surprisingly, I found the most clear explanations of the issues in the Civ Pro Q&A by Dorsaneo. The model answers to the basic questions (e.g. "What is Personal Jurisdiction?") were succinct summaries of the big picture stuff that I was struggling with. (You can memorize all the details you want, but until you understand the big picture of Civ Pro, they don't seem to make any sense).

Along those lines, a few things to bear in mind are:

Civ Pro is as much a constitutional law course as it is a rule-driven course. Many of the rules and cases revolve around protecting constitutionally guaranteed due process, and due process consists of two things: (1) Notice and (2) Opportunity to be heard.

Jurisdiction just means Power. For a court to have jurisdiction, it must have the power to hear this type of case (Subject Matter Jurisdiction) and the power to affect the property rights of the parties to the case (Personal Jurisdiction).

Forum generally means which state's laws are going to control. Obviously, there's a lot more that goes into it, but that's how to easily distinguish it from Jurisdiction and Venue.

Venue just refers to what county or district it's proper to hear the case in.

To bring a case in a particular court, the court needs have Jurisdiction (both Personal (either general or specific) and Subject Matter), and that court must be the proper forum and venue for the case. The trial can go forward without these only if the parties don't object at the appropriate time (i.e. they waive them) -- except that Subject Matter Jurisdiction generally can't be waived.

And then there's Erie.

There's your 30,000 foot view. From there, if you learn the elements to those, the facts of the cases that relate and how they were decided, and which rules are relevant to which topic, you're probably ahead of most of your class.

[feralinfant]

I found the glannon guide extremely helpful.

The E and E less so.

[BlueLotus]

Freer's barbri lecture is money. I was totally lost in the woods until I came across it.

[butlerraider1]

Paying it forward flowcharts: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=220982

Huge help