Rules of civil procedure govern everything that happens outside of criminal proceedings. This Nutshell provides a road map to navigating civil procedure rules and helps build a foundation for understanding the overall picture. Topics discussed include: jurisdiction, venue, and other court-selection issues; pleading, discovery, summary judgment, and other pretrial matters; adjudication, judgments, and appeals; multi-party/multi-claim proceedings, including class actions and multidistrict litigation; plus standing, the Erie doctrine, arbitration, and other important procedural issues. The new edition covers all the subjects dealt with in today's civil procedure courses, whether four or five or six hours in length.