Litigating in Federal Court

This book is designed to provide guidance to the law student or litigator as to the applicable rules—and the inter-relationship among those rules—for all of the stages of a federal civil lawsuit. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are not sufficiently organized or cross-referenced to allow law students or litigators to easily understand the relationships among the rules, or to make sure that all relevant rules have been consulted. Litigating in Federal Court seeks to remedy this deficiency. The second edition of this book includes all of the updates to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that have occurred since the last edition was published, as well as some additional material on changing litigation trends such as e-discovery.

As in the first edition, Litigating in Federal Court is divided into two parts. The first part of the book covers all of the stages of federal court litigation, including a short narrative discussion of each stage and one or more charts showing the applicable rules and their relationship to each other. These charts have been drafted and re-drafted based on Professor Woodley's experience as a federal court clerk, a litigation associate in a law firm, and a professor of Civil Procedure and Pretrial Advocacy for many years. The second part of the book contains multiple checklists for drafting most of the documents used in the pretrial process (which include citations of the basic relevant rules).

This extremely practical, yet analytically complex, guide to federal court litigation is a valuable resource for law students and litigators alike.

"For those of you in Civ Pro, or in a course that involves pre-trial or appellate litigation, [this] is a 'must-get' book...Woodley tells you what you need to know, in a simple and direct manner. ...[I]f you're doing anything that involves civil litigation, whether pre- or post-trial, this book is an excellent guide to what you need to be doing to make sure you've done your homework and don't get poured out on a dismissal for technical rules violations. She lays out, step by step, how to handle the interplay of the FRCPs, the U.S. Code on procedures, and the landmark case laws. This book is a Godsend.… And for those of you who are starting law school this fall, get this book—AFTER you've done your basic prepping for Civ Pro. (That's because she does not go into a nitty-gritty discussion of the FRCPs or the landmark cases. The book was obviously intended as a supplement. But it's a supplement that pulls everything together in a succinct fashion, so you see how the pieces all fit together.) There have been very, very few books that I could recommend without any reservation whatsoever. …This book is now on my list of the very best books on the market—not only for first-year Civ Pro students, but for future litigators (including those in STATE courts). I actually feel PROUD to have discovered this book and to be recommending it to you, that's how good it is."
—PlanetLawSchool review on the first edition