This is another in the long line of hornbooks from West publishing. It is an excellent source to supplement and even embellish the law of Civil Procedure contained in whichever casebook you are using. Since most Civil Procedure courses are a year long, I would strongly recommend investing in this hornbook, it is very handy to have when outlining and preparing for finals.

The "book description" above belongs to a different book: this hornbook is not part of the "Black Letter Series," its author is not Professor Clermont, and it doesn't come with a handy computer disk.

It is, however, an extremely helpful hornbook to have and use during your first-year course on Civil Procedure. If you're a One-L, buy this early and use it often; it'll go with pretty much whatever casebook you happen to be using (mine was Yeazell). It's extremely well-designed and its discussions are clear and sound.

If you're looking around in order to decide whether you need a hornbook at all, the answer is: yes, you probably do. There may be students who can squeeze a profitable education out of the "casebook" approach, but I'm not one of them and you probably aren't either.

During your first semester, it will be tempting to spend a lot of time briefing cases. Don't let me talk you out of doing so, or you'll be really mad at me the first time you get called on unprepared. But you'll probably be better off spending a little less time briefing and a little more time reading this hornbook first.

This is the most helpful study aid available for Civil Procedure! The text is very easy to understand and it is orgainized to follow the progression of the law school course. The authors do an excellent job of explaining the development of personal jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction to the present day. It also does a fine job of explaining the federal rules (and includes an index of each FRCP and where it is cited).

Like almost all hornbooks or outlines, this one glosses over Trademark law. Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks are all taught seperately, so I don't understand why they are lumped together and glossed over superficially by almost all hornbooks.

Much has changed since 1990, particularly in patent law, with the advent of the provisional patent application. Still useful, but many details will be incorrect.

I don't know whether or why the 2d edition would be on sale, as the first reviewer implies in his or her nevertheless good review. The third edition has been out for two years and it is complete, accessible, understandable, and better than the competition--by far! If you want to understand patents, copyrights, trademarks, this book will make you an expert in an afternoon.