Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach

The 6th Edition of Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach is designed to provide a clear and actively engaging presentation of civil procedure in a manner that enables both students and professors to assess learning success throughout the course. The Sixth Edition fully incorporates all amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure through December 1, 2020, as well as a few case law developments since the 2018 publication date of the Fifth Edition. Particularly noteworthy new cases that are included in this edition are the Supreme Court’s recent decisions pertaining to arbitration: Lamps Plus, Inc v. Varela, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019) (courts may not infer from an ambiguous agreement that parties have consented to class arbitration); New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira, 139 S. Ct. 532 (2019) (applicability of FAA’s overage exclusion to be determined by court not arbitrator); Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc., 139 S. Ct. 524 (2019) (courts may not determine arbitrability if that decision has been delegated to the arbitrator under the agreement); and Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018) (FAA savings clause does not permit invocation of arbitration-specific defenses; NLRA does not provide basis for outlawing class action waivers in the labor dispute context). Developments in the class action area are included as well, including coverage of the 2018 amendments to Rule 23 as well as Supreme Court decisions in Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, 139 S. Ct. 710 (2019) (Rule 23(f)’s 14-day deadline for appeal is not jurisdictional and is not subject to equitable tolling), and China Agritech v. Resh, 138 S. Ct. 1800 (2018) (no tolling of statute of limitations periods for putative class representatives who wait until the expiration of the limitations period to file class claims). Finally, this edition discusses recent developments with respect to personal jurisdiction jurisprudence, covering the emerging issue of personal jurisdiction over the claims of absent class members who lack any connection with the forum state, and the appropriate standard courts should use for determining whether a claim arises out of or relates to contacts with the forum state for purposes of specific jurisdiction. Full coverage of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court―which addresses the latter issue―is included in this volume. This edition, like the one that preceded it, integrates references to online assessment tools in the CasebookPlus™ platform. These consist of a bank of 300 multiple-choice questions that provide comprehensive assessment of the topics covered in this book, with detailed feedback consisting of explanations for both correct and incorrect responses. This feature provides an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the material actively as the course progresses and permits students and professors to determine the extent to which the material is being learned. The bank of questions also serve as excellent preparation for the civil procedure component of the Multistate Bar Exam.