Regular type; large type; and after the jump. It will post at 9 a.m. Thursday, March 13.
Civil Procedure
Professor Howard Wasserman
FIU College of Law
Spring 2025
Preliminary Examination
Format:
This is a take-home preliminary examination. It consists of ten (10) multiple-choice questions, each worth five (5) points. The exam is worth fifty (50) total points towards your final grade.
The exam will be available for download from the FIU Civ Pro Blog (www.fiucivpro.blogspot.com) beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 13; it is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, March 20.
You must work alone. You may not consult or discuss—by any means or methods of communication or interaction—the exam, the questions, your answers, or anything related to them with colleagues, friends, family, classmates, other law students, teachers, pets, inanimate objects, me, or anyone in the known universe. Please respect me, your colleagues, and your professional identity by adhering to this requirement.
No outside research or discussion, beyond course materials, is permitted or necessary.
Type your answers (Question # and answer letter only) on a sheet of paper containing your Blind ID # (and no other identifying information) and your section (A or B).
Goal:
This preliminary examination serves two purposes. It provides another opportunity to check-in on the material and how well you understand it. And it provides an opportunity to run up some additional points towards your final grade.
A Note on the Problem:
Questions derive from one civil action. The stages of the case are broken into several parts. Information, facts, and documents presented at the outset apply to all questions that follow. The problem adds facts, documents, or procedural issues as it goes, relevant to subsequent questions. Once some fact or document is introduced, it can be used for all subsequent questions—later questions may require that you refer to earlier information.
The case is presented in a combination of global facts, court documents, motions, legal arguments, and legal provisions. If something is shown as being in a pleading, document, or law, you may refer to it (including citing by ¶ or §) as you would to a document or legal provision.
Some questions cross-reference the facts of a prior question (e.g., Question # 3 may ask an additional question as to a motion discussed in Question # 2). Other questions may depend on how you answered an earlier question (e.g., your answer to Question # 5 may vary depending on how you answered Question # 4).
Questions are in bold. All facts, documents, law, and information necessary to answer question have already appeared before that question. Any new information appearing after a question is for later questions.
Litigation in federal court is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and applicable federal statutes, as well as additional legal provisions provided in the problem. Names are of the actual parties, witnesses, and participants in the real-world drama.
Read the facts carefully. All necessary facts are provided; if some fact is not provided, it is not necessary to the analysis. You may not have an entire document, but you have everything you need to answer the questions. You may draw appropriate conclusions and inferences from the absence of a fact. Do not assume facts. Do not fight the facts you are given. If you do not have the facts to support some issue, do not discuss that issue.
Read the questions carefully. Answer only the question asked. The questions and issues to be drawn out of each question are straightforward. Do not look for tricks or hidden balls. Most questions are discrete, narrow, and precise, asking you to resolve one specific question or issue. If an issue has multiple pieces, it may spread across several questions; focus on the question asked. The questions likely do not require you to run through multiple issues or more than 1-2 related rules. Any rule or issue you introduce or mention should be analyzed and applied to the facts in detail. Do not mention a rule in passing as a conclusion.
Materials:
You may use any and all assigned materials from the class. This includes the casebook, Glannon, your rules pamphlet, and any and all other rules, statutes, cases, documents, and other materials provided or assigned. This includes materials and comments posted to the blog. You may use any original notes, outlines, or other study document that you were at least 25% responsible for creating (i.e., an outline or notes created by a study group).
You may not use commercial outlines, supplements, or other materials and books that were not assigned as part of the class. You may not do any outside research or consult any additional sources or reports, in print or online. You may not consult or discuss the exam, your answers, or anything related to them with colleagues, friends, family, classmates, other law students, random people on the street, teachers, pets, inanimate objects, me, or anyone in the known universe, living or dead.
Academic Policies:
This examination is administered and conducted in accordance with all the provisions of the Florida International University College of Law Academic Policies, reprinted in the College of Law Student Handbook. Students are expected to be familiar with and to conduct themselves in accordance with those policies and regulations.
Good luck.
