Overview
A Documentary Companion to A Civil Action contains a broad selection of the documents from the litigation described in Jonathan Harr's book, A Civil Action. This is an indispensable supplement to Harr's best-selling portrait of the landmark toxic torts case, Anderson v. Cryovac. As you proceed through the Documentary Companion, you will encounter most of the types of documents that practicing lawyers prepare in the course of actual litigation. The documents illustrate, often in complex and fascinating ways, the operation of procedural rules studied in class. Examining these documents will not only help you master these rules but also help you see their relevance to the overall process of civil litigation. Moreover they will expose you to various styles of legal writing and argumentation.Anderson v. Cryovac was an extraordinarily complex, lengthy and bitterly fought case. Consequently, the documents illustrate virtually every phase of the civil litigation process. The one major phase of litigation that we have not attempted to document in this book is the trial itself, because the issues raised by trial motions and transcripts are usually addressed in separate courses on evidence or trial practice. We have, however, included pretrial documents regarding the organization of the trial and selection of the jury and post-trial motions attacking and defending the verdict.
The Documentary Companion and A Civil Action together allow you to think about how the ethical rules interact with the procedural rules to guide the behavior of attorneys, both in theory and in practice.