Get on top of civil procedure.

The challenge

Where students get stuck

Two difficulties are common. The first is advising on strategy without grounding it in a rule. The second is stating a rule without applying it to the facts or identifying what the client should do. The topics students find most demanding include jurisdiction and commencing proceedings, pleadings and particulars, discovery and privilege, interlocutory applications, the overarching obligations and case management powers, and the resolution options of mediation and arbitration. Each requires the rule and its consequence together.

How I help

We pair each rule with its practical effect: identify the governing rule of court, apply it to the facts, then explain the consequence. We give particular attention to pleadings, discovery and privilege, and the case management obligations, and work through past problems so the analysis moves clearly from the facts to the rule to a reasoned recommendation.

The method

One method, every problem

Four steps run every argument: name the issue, state the rule, apply it to the facts, conclude. Almost every legal rule takes one of six shapes. Any of these six shapes may carry a twist. Learn the six shapes and the twist →

Related subjects: Evidence & Proof, Remedies, Torts. See all subjects, or read the publication on practice hypotheticals.