The Modern Rules of Style

by Paul Marx

Today, lawyers and clients devote a great deal of time, effort, and expense to discovery. More often than not, discovery, and not trial, is the central battleground of a case. Most civil lawsuits in federal court end before trial, either by pretrial settlement or on dispositive motion. In either case, the fruits of discovery can be critical to the outcome. The need for analytical and strategic guidance on problems in discovery is heightened by the fact that much of it is handled by relatively inexperienced lawyers, and in the case of document production, legal assistants. Effective discovery is crucial.
This book is written to address that need. It describes the problems that civil litigators encounter most frequently in pretrial discovery and presents suggestions and strategies for solving these problems. Following a background discussion on the scope and types of discovery, discovery problems are presented as hypotheticals (many of which the authors have encountered in their experience) followed by a discussion that includes the law and helpful practice tips. In this edition, particular emphasis has been placed on discussion and interpretation of the new rules, and evolving case law, concerning discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2007

About the author

Fr. Paul Marx, O.S.B. was a pioneer in the worldwide pro-life movement. He became involved in the movement in the 1960s, writing his first pro-life news article in 1967.

Fr. Marx had a Doctorate in Family Sociology from the Catholic University in Washington, DC. He did post-graduate work at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley, and the American University in Washington, D.C.

He was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1947 by the Order of St. Benedict. After nearly two decades on the faculty of St. Johns University, he was permitted by his order to work on pro-life issues full time. He undertook the task of spreading the pro-life message with his characteristic vision, leadership, and energy.

In 1972, he started the Human Life Center at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Moving to Washington, DC, Fr. Marx founded Human Life International in 1981, and the Population Research Institute in 1989.

Fr. Marx wrote more than 13 books, including The Death Peddlers, his most famous work. In 1973, concerned about euthanasia, he wrote The Mercy Killers. Well over one million copies of this book, warning of the dangers of legalized euthanasia, were sold or distributed in the English-speaking world. In 1997, Fr. Marx wrote his autobiography, Faithful for Life.

Fr. Marx visited some 90 countries of the world to promote the pro-life cause, working to defend life from conception to natural death. In retirement, he lived at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, but remained active as the chairman of PRI’s board.

Fr. Marx passed away on March 20, 2010. At the moment of his death, he raised his arms towards Heaven and said, "Take me home."

Reviews

[Jonathan Katz]

My mom thought my writing needed help. I couldn't agree with her more.

I think this will be better than "On Writing Well" which I read in high school, which really did not help me to write well. If anything, I think it caused me to write a lot worse while trying to conform to some style that was dictated to me by both the author and my high school teachers. I found that I did my best writing when I just wrote how I felt.

That being sad, my grammar is in dire need of help. Seriously. That is what I am hoping to get out of this, touching up on how to say things grammatically correct while hopefully being able to present my points better. I think I'm past trying to be eloquent, but I can at least be lucid.