Remedies (Spring 2022) LAW 6305 21051

Holland Hall - 283 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday  9:15 AM 10:10 AM

Professor Thomas D. Russell

Required Books:

Douglas Laycock & Richard Hazen, Modern American Remedies: Cases and Materials Concise 5th Edition (Wolters Kluwer, 2018). ISBN-13: 9781543844085 Be sure that your book is the 5th edition AND the concise edition.

James M. Fischer, Understanding Remedies. 4th ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2021.) ISBN-13: 9781531021894 Be sure to get the current edition.

Remedies is about the prayer for relief in a complaint. This course is very practical. What do plaintiffs’ lawyers ask the court to give their clients? What can they ask for? Money, mostly. But sometimes the lawyer wants the defendant to do or not do something. Or, the lawyer wants the court to say what something means. Remedies is about what litigation can yield.

The objectives of this course are for you to better understand (1) the work of trial lawyers including, not incidentally, Frederic G. Levin; (2) the central importance of stacks of cash (see image at right) as the goal of litigation; (3) the relationship of damages to the payment of lawyers (see image below); (4) the source of money to pay damages particularly in tort litigation; (5) the process of collecting money against losing defendants; (6) the relationship of remedies, including the remedies that you have already studied in other courses, to the causes of action; (7) the difference between common law damages and equitable remedies; (8) the nature of equitable remedies particularly injunctions; (9) the difference between restitution and common law tort and contract remedies; and (10) fee-shifting. 


We will study damages, equitable remedies (including injunctions), enforcement of equitable decrees, restitution, and declaratory remedies.

After completing this course, students should be able to:

1. Differentiate among various remedies in litigation;

2. Apply caselaw and statutory authority regarding the available remedies in a lawsuit;

3. Understand the scope and limitations of injunctions and damages as remedies in civil actions; 

4. Write simply and clearly about the application of remedies to factual scenarios; and 

5. Understand remedies topics in preparation for the bar exam.


Syllabus





© Thomas D. Russell 2024