The Virtual Law Office Experience is now an integrated part of the
textbook. The end — of — chapter assignments use online video resources to
provide a realistic workplace experience where assignments are presented
in the form of e — mail directions from the ''supervising attorney'' to the
paralegal. Students are assigned to watch a scenario as an observer and
complete a task that they would be asked to do in practice.
Cases include simulations of:
A minor traffic accident
A major school bus injury case based on an NTSB case report
A product liability case
Personal injury of a minor injured on a school bus
• Federal Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure have been updated.
• Electronic discovery rules and decisions have been updated.
• Chapter Introduction Videos by the authors appear online, providing an
overview of the chapter topic.
• Information on paralegal regulation has been updated.
• Exhibit and forms have been updated to reflect current practice.
• The Technology Resources Website has been updated with the most
recent trial version offers from legal software vendors.
Few students taking a civil litigation class have ever had any actual contact with
the courts or been involved in a lawsuit. As a result, most of their information
and beliefs about courts and trials come from television dramas, where every —
thing resolves itself in 30 to 60 minutes. In the real world, the process is slower
and more complex; in addition, litigation can be a bit of a mystery because
most of what happens goes on behind closed doors. We have tried, in both the
text and the supplements, to open the doors of the law office and courthouse
to present the process and the procedures of the real world of law.