Evidence Law Mastery, Hands-on Learning (Coursebook)

The study of evidence law theory and practice today is successfully accomplished by mastery of the Federal Rules of Evidence first enacted by Congress effective in 1975. The approach employed in Evidence Law Mastery to improve a practicing attorney’s knowledge and appreciation of modern evidence law in theory and practice is by capturing the significant advantages of the text and problem approach to the learning of evidence, an approach used extremely successfully in all bar preparation courses. Prior to presentation of the rule of evidence under consideration and a textual explanation of its operation, this work ordinarily presents a “problem.” Each “problem” is designed to present a comprehensive hypothetical factual situation as it would arise in practice. As the user reads the rule and text, which follow immediately, he or she is thus searching for comprehension of the rule in operation that will provide an answer to the problem presented. The “problem” raises issues focusing on the rationale as well as the operation of the rule. Following the textual presentation is ordinarily a series of questions and/or true-false inquiries. The questions raise issues concerning the foregoing rule in a narrow contextual setting while the true-false inquiries are statements of law that are either correct or incorrect. The answers to the questions and true-false inquiries with explanation are captured immediately below. At the end of the section a suggested correct answer to the introductory “problem” is presented.