Evidence: A Structured Approach, 5th Edition

This book's unique structured approach facilitates learning and incentivizes students to prepare for class. One Federal Rule of Evidence introduces each section, followed by text explaining the background, rationale, and details of the rule. The text includes numerous diagrams as visual aids to learning and short transcripts that illustrate how the rules are applied in the courtroom. The authors emphasize the rules over cases, but include a few edited versions of the seminal cases that every lawyer should know. The heart of the "structured approach" is the Questions for Classroom Discussion, which follow the narrative explanation for each rule. These questions consist of simple hypothetical cases allowing for a step-by-step analysis of each section of the pertinent rule. Because students know what questions the professor will ask in class, they quickly learn that preparation pays off. Evidence: A Structured Approach, Fifth Edition alsoallows students to download the questions directly for the book's page on aspenpublishing.com into their notes before class, freeing students to spend more time thinking and less time typing.

New to the Fifth Edition:

New author Kevin Lapp brings a highly effective manner of communicating with students reminiscent of one of the original authors of this text, David Leonard.
Extensive revisions to make the text more accessible to students and easier to teach from, and to reflect recent developments in the law:
Shorter length (by more than 200 pages) avoids diversions and details better left to treatment in law reviews or advanced courses
Exam Tip boxes at strategic points in each chapter help students understand how a given rule is typically tested
Key Questions boxes at the beginning of each chapter (with concise answers in the appendix)assist the student in focusing on the heart of the material about to be covered
More charts and diagrams to help students visualize complex concepts and the connections between rules