These lessons have been temporarily removed for revisions. Thank you for your patience. CALI
Effective December 1, 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to reflect changes in discovery resulting from the electronic storage of information. CALI's lessons do not yet reflect these amendments. As each lesson is revised to reflect the amended rules, the lesson's catalog description will be updated to enable students and faculty to easily tell which lessons include the amended rules.
This game, the newest game in the Coney Island & Buffalo Creek series, introduces students to pre-trial discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Like Buffalo Creek II: A Game of Discovery, it assumes the jurisdiction has not opted-out of the Rule 26 initial and pre-trial disclosure requirements. The discovery issues arise in the context of a class action school desegregation case. One player represents the plaintiffs who contend the school district is failing in 1994 to comply with a 1970 school desegregation order. The other player represents the defendant school district, the school board, and its employees (including a high school principal whose remarks concerning interracial dating at a prom brought him national notoriety).
Several of the questions have multiple parts. After a description of potential items for disclosure or discovery, the player in possession of the information is asked if he or she wants to disclose it. Next, the receiving player is asked if he or she wants to seek discovery of the information in question or additional information. Attorneys must decide whether the rules require disclosure of the items in question; whether to resist discovery; and must provide reasons for failing to disclose or resisting a discovery request. The computer plays the roles of the clerk of the court (to file motions) and Judge Myron Thompson (to rule on the motion and offer observations about the player’s performance). Players must also consider time, the cost of discovery litigation, the cost of compliance with requests, and their reputation.
