Federal Civil Rules Handbook, Thomson Reuters/West, 2019
Law Library Reserve Collection: KF8816 .A193
Effective Dec. 1, 2018, new amendments to the Federal Rules of Procedure (FRCP) came into force. West publishes this useful handbook every year to help practitioners keep up-to-date with these changes.
The rules affected this past year are Rule 5 (filing - electronic), Rule 23 (class action litigation), and Rules 62 & 65.1 (stay after judgement).
This volume contains the text of all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as amended and in their entirety. The text of each Rule is followed by an Author's Commentary, which explains the core concept of the rule, followed by Applications or practice pointers expanding on the rule's application. In the case of those rules amended this past December, the Author's Commentary will also offer a short explanation for the amendment.
A deeper explanation of the purpose behind the revisions may be found in Part VIII containing the official Advisory Committee Notes. The five Advisory Committees (Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, Criminal, and Evidence) "evaluate suggestions (i.e. proposals) for rules amendments in the first instance" and "carry on a continuous study of the operation and effect" of the federal rules as directed by the Rules Enabling Act. In effect, these Notes constitute the principal source of the Rules' "legislative history." You will find not only the Advisory Committee Notes for 2018, but for all the years in which a Rule was amended.
Supplemental materials include an introduction to general concepts in federal practice such as personal and subject-matter jurisdiction, removal and remand, venue and forum non conveniens, the Erie doctrine, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. Additional chapters cover Multidistrict Litigation, Appellate Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and selected sections from Title 28 U.S.C. Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.
The 2019 edition contains more than 1200 new citations from the federal courts decided between Fall 2017 and Summer 2018 in an ongoing effort by West to help practitioners keep current with the courts' evolving approach to the rules and their amendments.
The Federal Civil Rules Handbook is not available on Westlaw. So just drop by the Circulation Desk and you can check it out.
Submitted by Eric Taylor, Evening Rederence Librarian on March 31, 2019
This article appears in the categories: Law Library
