Civil Litigation
This course provides an overview of all phases of Florida and federal civil litigation with an emphasis on tort claims. Prepares students to perform as a Florida civil litigation paralegal. Topics covered include civil procedure, evidence, discovery, drafting pleadings and motions, client/witness interviews, and trial preparation.
How this course works
- Work through the activity
- Post by Friday, 11:59 PM
- Reply by Sunday, 11:59 PM
- 1Activity 1
Introduction to Civil Litigation
Civil litigation is how the legal system resolves disputes between private parties without violence or self-help, and it is where many paralegals and lawyers spend their…
- 2Activity 2
Pre-Suit
A strong claim can die before anyone files it. The client's story may fit no claim the law recognizes, or the deadline to sue may pass while the client waits to call a…
- 3Activity 3
Jurisdiction and Venue
Before a court can decide who wins a lawsuit, it has to be the right court. Two questions settle that: does this court have the power to hear this kind of case and to…
- 4Activity 4
Initial Pleadings
The complaint in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly accused the regional Bell telephone companies of agreeing not to compete, but the facts it pleaded showed only that the…
- 5Activity 5
Response to Initial Pleadings
When a lawsuit lands, the clock starts the moment the defendant is served, and the first move shapes everything that follows. A defendant can meet the allegations…
- 6Activity 6
Discovery
A lawsuit pits two sides against each other, and then its rules make each side hand the other evidence. Served with a proper request, a party must answer questions under…
- 7Activity 7
Motion Practice
Between the complaint that opens a civil case and the trial that may never come, the judge rules on motions. Each asks for a specific order: dismissing a claim the law…
- 8Activity 8
Evidence
A trial decides who wins on the facts, but the jury never hears every fact. Evidence law is the filter that decides what reaches them: which statements, records,…
- 9Activity 9
Settlement
Can a plaintiff win at trial and still end up owing the defendant money? In Florida, the answer can be yes when the plaintiff turned down the defendant's proposal for…
- 10Activity 10
Trial Preparation
Since January 1, 2025, Florida's civil rules have required a case management order to say that its deadlines will be strictly enforced unless the court changes them. In…
- 11Activity 11
Trial
Trial problems do not arrive on a schedule. A witness goes missing the week before jury selection, a key exhibit turns out to have no foundation, or a laptop full of…
- 12Activity 12
Case Management
File the same car-crash complaint in Volusia County and in Palm Beach County, and each court answers it with its own case management order. In Palm Beach the order is…
- PProject
Create a Case Study
Everything you have worked on this semester ends up in one place: a case file. The complaint, the answer, the motion, and the discovery requests in it all describe the…