Civil Procedure Simulations: Bridge to Practice

More than most legal educators, Civil Procedure professors recognize the need to teach their students how arcane legal rules apply to real human problems. That was true when the first edition of Civil Procedure Simulations: Bridge to Practice was published over a decade ago and remains true today. But one might ask why a second edition? The Supreme Court and lower federal courts have addressed some new complex questions since publication of the first edition. The Supreme Court has failed to resolve how its due process minimum contacts analysis works for internet cases, the personal jurisdiction issue in the first edition. Instead, it has complicated basic rules involving brick and mortar defendants. Enter the same trolling reporter Mike Ridge, but since we met him in the first edition, his internet employer fired him and he is now working for a brick and mortar newspaper that is about to publish a devasting story about another young lawyer. Valentina Rossi is contemplating a run for office and Ridge wants to publish a story claiming that she and her former boss had an illicit romance, leading to the termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Although most readers might want to dig into the potentially salacious details, a proceduralist can sense a vertical choice of law issue that has divided lower federal courts: does a state's anti-SLAPP law apply in federal court? For the answers, be sure to read the new simulations.