Civil Procedure (Fall 2011)
Professor Dan Klerman

Office Hours

10 minutes after each class in Room 103

Monday, November 14, 2:40-3, 3:20-3:40, 4-5 in my office, Room 460

Thursday, November 17, 4:14-5 in my office, Room 460

Monday, November 21, 3-4 in my office, Room 460

Tuesday, November 29, 4-5 in my office, Room 460

Friday, December 2, 10-11:15 in my office, Room 460

Tuesday, December 6, 3-5 in my office, Room 460

Thursday, December 15, 12-2 in my office, Room 460

Review Class

Thursday, December 15,10-12, Rm 101

Answers to the Suit, Settlement & Fee Shifting Problems

Answers to the Suit, Settlement & Fee Shifting Problems are on the Portal. To access the model answers, log onto the portal and click on “Secure Documents.” To access the model answer, you will need a password. It’s the same password you use to access the portal or to check your USC email.

2002 Exam Memo and Model Answer

Click here to download.

Limited Circulation of Class Materials
       Class materials, including PowerPoint Slides and audio recordings, are for use by 2011Civil Procedure students only. You may not share them with future Civil Procedure students or anyone else. Doing so would be a violation of both USC Law School rules and copyright law. The purpose of this policy is to preserve my ability to ask some in-class questions in future classes. If PowerPoint Slides, audio recordings, or other class materials are shared with next year's class, students with access to those materials will have an unfair advantage and will be deprived of the benefit of working out the answers themselves.

Contact Information
Email: dklerman@law.usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-7973
Fax: (213) 740-5502
Office: Room 460
Mailbox: Room 305
Assistant: Chris Schnieders, cschnieders@law.usc.edu, Rm. 407. 213 740-5714

Audio Recordings
Audio recordings of every class are available on the Portal. Audio recordigns will be posted soon after the relevant class has ended.

Class Schedule and Materials
Please note canceled classes. The dates of canceled classes are highlighted in gray. I can cancel classses without scheduing make-ups, because we are scheduled to meet for 225 minutes per week rather than the required 200 minutes per week.

Laptops
          Laptops, iPads, cellphones and similar devices may not be used during class for notes or other purposes.  While in class, you should focus on thinking, not note taking. To make most note taking unnecessary, I will distribute my PowerPoint slides and post an audio recording of each class.

Attendance
          Because I will be posting an audio recording of each class, as well as my PowerPoint Slides, it will be very tempting to skip class. To counteract that temptation, class attendance is mandatory. If you are going to miss a class, please e-mail my assistant, Chris Schnieders, cschnieders@law.usc.edu.  It is better for everyone if I do not call on someone who is absent.

Class Participation
          Participation in class discussion is an essential part of the learning process, because it helps you get more comfortable with public speaking and thinking on your feet, and because lisenting carefully to answers provided by fellow students helps you see things from different perspectives. I will call on students randomly, whether they volunteer to answer a particular question or not. I will sometimes ask for volunteers. If you are unprepared for class, please e-mail my assistant, Chris Schnieders, cschnieders@law.usc.edu.  It is better for everyone if I do not call on someone who is unprepared. I do not intend to grade participation, because 1Ls are usually exceptionally well prepared for class and eager to participate. If this year's class is different, I reserve the right to grade participation. If I start grading participation, I will make an announcement in class, and the grading of class participation will not be retroactive.

Lunches
         I will be organizing lunches with small groups of students. Sign-up sheets will be availble in class. Lunches are on the 4th floor outdoor patio. The door to the roof patio is between rooms 433 and 434. Discussion need not be limited to Civil Procedure. In fact, I hope it's not. To preserve an informal atmosphere, I will limit lunch to 10 students. Please bring your lunch or purchase it before 12:20.

Assignment Change for Monday 9/18/11

Please disregard what the slides say about the assignment for Monday. The assignment for Monday is:

FRCP 26(g), 30(c)(d),(g), 37

Yeazell 460-63 (7th Edition of casebook. This is the edition we have been using so far in class)

PDF linked here (from 4th edition of Yeazell casebook. This is an earlier edition of your casebook), ignoring p. 553 question 1.a

Questions to think about:

        a) Yeazell p. 462 Qs 1-4 (7th Edition of casebook. This is the edition we have been using so far in class)

        b) In Phillips v Manufacturers Hanover Trust, what rule, if any, did defendant’s counsel violate? Be sure to consider FRCP 11, 26(g), 30(c),30(d), 37(a)(4), 37(b) and 37(d) and explain why each rule was or was not violated. Note that the Rules have been amended several times since 1994, so the reasoning in the opinion may no longer be valid.

        c) For each rule that you think the defendant’s lawyer violated, what is the sanction? Are sanctions mandatory or discretionary?

        d) Did the magistrate judge make the right decision in Phillips v Manufacturers Hanover Trust? If you were a law clerk to Judge Francis what would you have advised him to do?

        e) What, if anything, should the plaintiff’s lawyer in Phillips v Manufacturers Hanover Trust have done differently?

         f) If the plaintiff’s lawyer asked the district court judge to review the magistrate judge’s decision, is the district court judge likely to affirm the magistrate judge’s decision?

        g) Assuming that the district court judge affirmed the magistrate judge’s decision, how and/or when could the plaintiff appeal the decision on sanctions to the Court of Appeals?

        h) Assuming that the magistrate judge’s decision is affirmed, what, if anything, should the plaintiff’s lawyer in Phillips v Manufacturers Hanover Trust do to get the information he needs to win the case?

Assignment for First Class

   (1) Buy class materials:

        (a) Yeazell, Civil Procedure (7th edition) (required, available at bookstore)

        (b) Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster (2008 edition) (required, available at bookstore)

        (c) Glannon, Civil Procedure: Examples and Explanations (6th edition)(not required but highly recommended, available at bookstore)

        (d) Rules Pamphlet (required, available at CopyVision, Law School Rm. 18)

   (2) Read the 14th Amendment, which can be found on the first page of the Rules Pamphlet.

   (3) Click here to download Greene v. Lindsey and related materials. Read the materials and think carefully about the questions on the last page.  These are questions that I will ask in class on Monday.  It would be wise to review the questions before reading the case.  You are encouraged to discuss the questions with your classmates. Make sure you understand all the technical terms mentioned in the case.  For example, what is a "forcible entry and detainer" action?  What is a "summons"? What is "summary judgment"? Legal dictionaries, such as Black's Law Dictionary, will help. The library has hard copies of Black's or you can access it from Westlaw by typing a word or phrase in the "Define using Black's Law Dictionary" box in the left column of the Westlaw Law School home page.  Remember to put quotes around phrases when searching in Westlaw.

   (4) You may find it helpful to read page 345 of Glannon, Civil Procedure: Examples and Explanations.   I encourage you to buy your own copy of this book, but you can also use one of the two copies available on closed reserve in the library. KF8840.G58.2008.

   (5) Read this webpage to understand class policies.  We will not review them in class.

   (6) Start reading Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster.  You should have read Part One (the first 88 pages) by next Friday, August 26. 

Email

   You should have received an e-mail from me Thursday morning, August 18, informing you about this webpage. If you did not receive it, please contact computing immediately to figure out why you did not receive it. I will be sending e-mails to your official USC address occasionallyl throughout the semester, so it is important that your e-mail is working properly.