Civil Litigation in New York
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Description
We are very pleased to present the sixth edition of Civil Litigation in New York. We are gratified by the warm reception the casebook has received from students and professors throughout New York and beyond since its first publication almost 30 years ago. Our goal continues to be the provision of a book that is readable, as reasonably thorough as space permits, and as thought-provoking as the many interesting issues raised by modern litigation allow. The sixth edition of Civil Litigation in New York retains the transactional approach used in the first five. The organization of the chapters follows, to the extent feasible, the usual development of an action as experienced by counsel. While this approach gives the student a way of fitting each piece into a cognizable whole, it should not suggest invariability. In our own teaching we ask our students to confront the choices available to the parties at each stage and to analyze the reasons for choosing one path over another. We have again interspersed litigation problems throughout the book designed to encourage the students to read the surrounding material carefully. Often, discussion of a problem will highlight ambiguity in doctrine which purports to be straightforward. Evaluation of competing approaches should call for reference to underlying policy and value assumptions. The student (and teacher) will then be encouraged to think about the values that a procedural system can and should serve. Reflecting the many legal developments in the past six years, as well as our own ambition to improve the book, the new edition include much new material. The chapter on personal jurisdiction has been particularly affected by the close attention the Supreme Court of the United States has recently paid to the area. We found that these cases worked best when folded into the subdivisions of personal jurisdiction doctrine, rather than as a separate treatment of constitutional issues. As with the preparation of any casebook, we faced many difficult decisions of inclusion and exclusion. We hope we have struck the right balance between preservation and dynamism. You will find that important new cases have been added and statutory changes noted, but we have avoided change for change’s sake and have thus retained the cases that make up the “canon” of our subject. . . . Civil litigation in New York is complex and demanding. It calls on such advocacy skills as oral argument, brief writing and cross-examination, but even more does it demand familiarity with the “law” of litigation. The purpose of this book is to help you learn that law in the context in which an advocate must apply it. We hope that you will not only become familiar with the rules of New York practice but that you will develop a sense of how they can be creatively applied. To that end we have included in each chapter litigation problems which are designed to help you put the law into a practical perspective. The problems are based on realistic situations (sometimes on actual cases) and therefore raise the sorts of difficult issues which can arise in the course of any action. Usually, you will find that we have presented the problem prior to the material which bears on it. This will hopefully make the material less abstract and more involving. Many of the problems do not have a single answer which is correct in an absolute sense. As with most legal issues there are various possible solutions, each with its own supporting arguments. Please approach them in that spirit. In keeping with its purposes, the book is organized roughly along the path litigation normally takes, starting with the rules governing the choice of forum. Since there is no route which all lawsuits must follow, and since there are some rules of litigation (e.g., those governing motion practice) which are relevant to several stages of a lawsuit, you should not take the linear organization we have adopted as exemplifying all lawsuits or as an approach you would always follow in practice. Use it, rather, to gain and keep a general sense of litigation as a process with a beginning, middle and clearly defined goal. The variety of paths litigation can take brings us to another point about the study of it. The flexibility of modern civil procedure, including that of New York, allows and therefore requires the lawyer to make frequent tactical choices. Should one make a particular motion? Obtain a provisional remedy? Seek discovery? If so, what kind? How should the pleading be drafted? It is our view that an effective advocate knows what the ethical choices are in every situation and dose his or her best to pick the alternative which will maximize the client’s chances of success. Thus, as you read the cases and problems which follow, we urge you to think about and evaluate the choices that the litigants made.
Publication Date
2013
Edition
6
Recommended Citation
Chase, Oscar G. and Barker, Robert A., "Civil Litigation in New York" (2013). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 83.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/83
