Civil Procedure Course Outline
Professor Johnson
Part 1: Introduction [1-27]
· FRCP 1: Scope and Purpose
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should be construed and administered to secure the (1) just, (2) speedy, and (3) inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding.
· 28 U.S.C. § 2072: Rules of Procedure and Evidence; Power to Prescribe.
(a) Supreme Court has power to prescribe all general rules of practice and procedure and rules of evidence for cases in the United States district courts (including proceedings before magistrate judges thereof) and courts of appeals.
(b) Rules made shall not abridge, enlarge, or modify any substantive right. All laws in conflict with such rules shall have no further force or effect after such rules have taken effect.
(c) Such rules may define when a ruling of a district court is final for purposes of appeal under section 1291.
· 28 U.S.C. § 2073: Rules of Procedure and Evidence; method of Prescribing.
(a)
(1) The Judicial Conference shall make and publish the procedures for the consideration of proposed rules under this section.
(2) Members of the bench and the professional bar, and trial and appellate judges, may recommend rules to be prescribed by the Judicial Conference.
· 28 U.S.C. § 2074: Rules of Procedure and evidence; Submission to Congress; Effective date
(a) Supreme Court shall transmit to congress not later than May 1 of the year in which a rule prescribed under §2072 is to become effective a copy of the proposed rule. Such rule shall take effect no earlier than December 1 of the year in which such rule is so transmitted unless otherwise provided by law. The Supreme Court may fix the extent such rule shall apply to proceedings then pending, except that the Supreme Court shall not require the application of such rule to further proceedings then pending to the extent that, in the opinion of the court in which such proceedings are pending, the application of such rule in such proceedings would not be feasible or would work injustice, in which event the former rule applies.
A. The Design of a Procedural System
· àall aspects of the legal system give input on how the system works and functions
· Rules of Civil Procedure should promote:
(1) Efficiency
(2) Fairness
(3) Simplicity
(4) Consensus
(5) Uniformity
· Adversarial Process
o Parties remain in charge of presentation of case and judge and jury remain passive and neutral
B. A Brief History of the American Procedural System
· Procedure was based on pleadings in English history
· Pleading: documents that state the parties’ legal and factual contentions
· Problem with pleading
o Rigid enforcement
o Cases often not enforced on merit
o So complex and intricate that procedure dominated the disputes rather than the facts
· Reasons Writ System lasted
o Tradition
o Quick dispute resolution
o Jury trial
· Problems with Writ System
o Rigid enforcement
o Cases not tried on merits
o Procedure dominated rather than facts in some cases
· Equity System Problems
o Chancellor had power, different rulings on same subject
o Lacked finality
C. An Overview of the American Judicial System
· Dual System of Courts
o Two main systems of courts
§ Federal courts—3 tier structure:
· District Court
· Court of Appeals
· Supreme Court
§ State Courts—Same 3 tier Structure
· However, names of courts vary between states
· Ex: NY highest level or court is NY Court of Appeals, NY Supreme Court is its trial court.
· Source of Law
o Federal courts have limited subject matter
o States have general subject matter
· Processing the Lawsuit
o Five stages of American litigation
(1) Pleading stage
o Parties have notice of claims for defense against them
(2) Pretrial Stage
o Fact gathering and evidence collection
(3) Trial
(4) Post-Trial
(5) Appeal
· Finality
(1) Once a case is decided it cannot be revisited because a party doesn’t like the outcome.
· Challenging the Standard Litigation Paradigm
(1) Modern American litigation is too expensive and time consuming as compared
y Reference; Exhibits: Statement in a pleading can be adopted by reference elsewhere in the same pleading or any other pleading. An exhibit to a pleading is a part of the pleading for all purposes.
· FRCP 84: Forms
The forms in the appendix suffice under these rules and illustrate the simplicity and brevity that these rules contemplate
· Form 1 & 7
1. A Model Complaint
· The only pleadings are:
(a) Complaints
(b) Answers
(c) Sometimes replies
· Pleadings serve the function of providing notice to the opposing party
· Federal pleading rules generally require only putting the other on notice of the claim being asserted. Detailed assertions of facts are not required however the court’s ruling in Twombly and Iqbal required that claims must have sufficient fact to be plausible, not just possible.
2. The Sufficiency of the Complaint
· Conley v. Gibson (Notice Pleading)
(a) Facts: Black members of the railway & steamship union brought action against bargaining unit under the Railway Labor Act for declaratory judgment, injunction, and damages for not representing them in “good faith” and without racial discrimination.
(b) Issue: Whether a case can be dismissed due to a lack of specific facts in its complaint. No.
(c) Rule: 8(a)(1)-(3)
(1) Don’t dismiss unless beyond reasonable doubt there is no set of facts to support the claim that would entitle plaintiff to relief.
(2) Must allege jurisdiction, entitlement to relief, and demand for relief sought.
(3) A short and plain statement of the claim that will give the defendant fair notice of what the plaintiff’s claim is and the grounds upon which it rests. (Construed as to do substantial justice).
