Class Bibliography: Pretrial Skills by Week - Short Form   Tags: civil procedure, complaint, defenses, discovery, litigation, pretrial, summary judgment  

I.     Retainer & Fee Agreements

II.    Law and Defenses

III.   Court Forms & Rules

IV.   Complaints, Orders & Notices

V.    Discovery

VI.   Summary Disposition

VII.  Injury Valuation

This bibliography includes print and online materials that will help you during the term. Many of the printed books are also available on Westlaw and Lexis. The forms for most of the ICLE books are available as well. The annotations include call numbers and also indicate if they are on Westlaw or Lexis.

If the book contains a CD, you will see “CD/FORMS PC” at the end of the annotation. These CDs can be checked out at the Circulation desks at the Oakland and Grand Rapids libraries, and are found on the FORMS PC in Lansing.

The guide is organized according to the topics listed to the left, in the guide outline.

In the sections of the guide focusing on print materials, the "location" provides the call number for a work. Clicking on the title takes a user to the relevant entry in the catalog. Where possible, guide sections about statutes link to the appropriate law.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need any further guidance. Being asked for reference help is no bother--it's why we're here.

COMPLAINTS, & ANSWERS with AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES (Use Westlaw MI-FILING) Here are some model searches that will bring up complaints and answers. The sample issue here is slip and fall, but your issue is likely something different. The part of the search that causes only complaints or answers to be retrieved is:

document type field, DT( …. )

Complaint:

Slip! OR trip! /S fall! OR fell AND dt(complaint)

You could also use the: MI-CIVPRAC database, in that event you need to search the title field rather than the document type field, and so your search would be:

Slip! OR trip! /S fall! OR fell AND ti(complaint)

Answer:

Slip! Or trip! /s fall! Or fell AND dt(answer) AND affirmative /s defense

(NOTE: Most relevant complaints and answers will not contain the words “slip” and “fall” since this is only a complaint, but the /S connector is used here anyway in order to narrow our results to those complaints and answers which contain both words in the same sentence, and thus avoid irrelevant hits.

Remember that this search is only a model. It is unlikely to fit your exact fact pattern, and is in no way persuasive, unlike an actual case will be.)

SUMMARY BRIEFS, MOTIONS, AND REPLIES (Use Westlaw MI-FILING) Here are some model searches that will bring up motions, briefs, and reply to the motions. The sample issue here is slip and fall. Your issue will need to be adjusted. The core part of the search is the document type field, DT( …. )

Brief for Summary (Sometimes there is also a Motion attached):

Slip! Or trip! /s fall! Or fell AND dt(summary)

Reply Brief to Motion for Summary:

Slip! Or trip! /s fall! Or fell AND dt(reply OR response OR answer AND summary)

Numbered Motion without the Brief (here we use the BUT NOT % connector):

Slip! Or trip! /s fall! Or fell AND dt(summary AND motion % brief)

NOTICES AND PROOFS OF SERVICE (Use Westlaw MI-PP)

ti(“proof of service” AND form)

ti(“notice of deposition” AND form)

ti(“notice of hearing” AND form)

Randy Foreman is a reference librarian at the Lansing campus. 

Last updated 4/18/07.