Any law students or lawyers: Where do I get good commercial outlines and canned briefs for these books?

Question

1. Cases and Materials on The Law of Torts

Fourth Edition

George C. Christie

American Casdebook Series

Thomson West publishing

ISBN: 0-314-25958-9

2. Criminal Law: Cases and Materials

Sixth Edition

John Kaplan

Aspen Publishers

ISBN: 978-0-7355-6835-8

3. Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials

Ninth Edition

Jack H. Friedenthal

American Casebook Series

Thomson West publishing

ISBN: 0-314-15231-8

4. Making and Doing Deals: Contracts in Context

Second Edition

David G. Epstein

ISBN: 0-8205-7044-3

5. Contract Law and Theory

Selected Provisions: Restatements of Contracts and Uniform Commerical Code

Fourth Edition

Robert E. Scott

ISBN: 1-4224-1169-9

Answer 1

Don't know where you are located.  Here in Chicago the major law schools usually have the commercial outlines for all casebooks in the law school's book store.  They call them "study aids".  You may want to contact the book stores at other law schools, if yours does not carry the study aids.

A word of warning here, the law school profs know about the canned briefs and commercial outlines.  I had a first year contracts class where the prof read and taught out of the canned brief book, he never opened the text during the class.  When he would ask for class participation students would read the canned brief word for word -- that was OK with him.  We all thought it was an easy blow-off class, until the final.  The closed book final exam tested us on the skill of briefing, not just reciting the canned brief.  It also tested those legal issues in the text book that come before the cases.  The test was so tough that it bounced out almost half of my class.  Those of us who survived learned to never rely on the canned briefs again.

Your best bet for an outline of a class is to find someone who previously took the class with that book and that prof.  Although the commercial outlines do follow the text books, not all profs follow it.

Good luck in law school.