CIV3701/102/3/2021
Tutorial Letter 102/3/2021
Civil Procedure
CIV3701
Semesters 1 and 2
Department of Criminal and Procedural Law
This tutorial letter contains important information
about your module.
BARCODE
Dear Student
This tutorial letter contains the following:
, CIV3701/102
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
2 APPROACH TO THE STUDY MATERIAL
3 HINTS ON EFFECTIVE STUDY AND PREPARATION
4 TYPE OF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS AND FORMULATION
5 ASSIGNMENT SKILLS NECESSARY
6 GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE EXAMINATION
7 CASE STUDIES
8 AMENDMENTS TO THE STUDY GUIDE
9 CONCLUDING REMARKS
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
We would like to welcome you to this module. We trust that you will find this tutorial letter
useful in your examination preparation. Although your preparation starts on page one of
both the study guide and tutorial letter 101 (in conjunction with the prescribed textbook),
your goal should not simply be to pass this module, but rather to pass it having gained
understanding and insight into the subject.
Many of you complain that Civil Procedure is an abstract subject. To change this perception
and to illustrate to you that Civil Procedure is used in everyday circumstances to solve
practical problems, we have decided to include a number of case studies. Use this tutorial
letter to develop and/or complement your learning in Civil Procedure, and remember that
your preparation for entering legal practice starts here.
1.2 Purpose of the tutorial letter
This tutorial letter is designed to guide and help you in studying Civil Procedure and in
preparing for the assignments and the examination. The goal is to better equip you with the
necessary skills and approaches for studying the module and for writing assignments and
the examination.
A good assignment and examination writing technique and approach will yield good results.
This tutorial letter therefore explores the do’s and don’ts of examination preparation and
examination taking skills, as well as strategies for improving your assignment and
examination answering skills. The tutorial letter looks at skills such as:
analysing past exam questions
planning essays
writing appropriately and accurately
arguing effectively, using appropriate concepts and theories
managing your time during an examination
2
, CIV3701/102
prioritising information in the examination
prioritising questions during the examination
knowing the negatives and positives of past exams
Mastery of the techniques of written response and good preparation are important aspects
of a good examination and assignment performance. If you follow the suggested study
method as described in this tutorial letter, you should not have any difficulty in mastering
the subject and passing CIV3701.
2 APPROACH TO THE STUDY MATERIAL
Because Civil Procedure is a practice orientated subject, your approach to studying the
subject contents will necessarily differ from how you approach predominantly theoretical
subjects. You will not pass this subject if you simply memorise the study material – you
need to understand it and you must be able to apply what you have learned to any given
set of facts. This implies that you should be able to, inter alia, analyse the various
processes and procedures and understand when each is applicable and why.
In practice, a client will not come to you and instruct you, for example, to issue a provisional
sentence summons: it is up to you to make that decision (based on the facts supplied to
you by your client), before explaining to your client why that is the correct or most
appropriate course of action to follow. This is not always easy: often you will be confronted
by a complex (or even jumbled) set of facts which you will have to sort through to enable
you to separate the relevant information from the irrelevant. You will also need to ask the
right questions to supplement inadequate information before you are able to decide on the
most appropriate procedural course to follow to achieve a particular goal. This course aims
to prepare you to meet such challenges. Therefore, when studying this module, we suggest
you place yourself in the position of a practitioner who either has to explain a procedure to
his or her client, or defend his or her decision before a court. This will result in your
constantly asking yourself the following type of questions: Why must procedure X, and not
procedure Y, be used? What is the difference between procedure X and procedure Y?
What is the purpose of a particular procedure? How and where does a particular procedure
fit into the whole litigation process? Is there another procedure which can be used to
achieve the same goal? How will I recognize a particular procedure? What is the next
procedural step? By constantly asking yourself these and similar questions while studying,
you will study the subject content with insight and you will be in a good position to handle
problem-type questions in the examination.
We often find that students tend to study the various processes and procedures in isolation,
and not with a view to understand how each one fits into the whole litigation process. This
creates problems when you have to answer problem-type questions in which a number of
these processes and procedures are linked, because you will not know how they are linked.
Please ensure that you understand the schematic outline of the whole litigation process
contained in study unit 16.3 and refer back to it regularly while studying. If you understand
this outline, it will be easier to understand where all the other related processes and
procedures fit in (such as the steps to be taken to rectify defective pleadings or applications
for interim payments).
It should be clear by now that you will not be able to master the work if you do not start
preparing early – two weeks before the examination simply will not suffice. Initially, you may
find most of the concepts and the terminology new and strange, but the more you go over
the work, the more accustomed to it you will become, and the less your chance of
becoming confused.
3
, CIV3701/102
This is a very interesting subject and you will find that there is an underlying logic to all the
processes and procedures – allow yourself the opportunity to discover this fact and enjoy
the subject!
3 HINTS ON EFFECTIVE STUDY AND PREPARATION
3.1 General remarks
As a distance education student, you are offered the benefit of controlling the time and pace
of your studies. However, this benefit may be fruitless without proper and efficient study and
preparation. There is simply no substitute for timeous, and thorough study and preparation
if you want to do well in your assessments. So, start very early in the semester or module
period. It is through good study and preparation that you will become well acquainted with
the subject matter.
Most students come to a distance education university with some ideas about how to go
about studying, and how to prepare and revise for an examination. However, the strategies
you used in the past may have been effective for the type of assessment done and the type
of institution you attended then, but those strategies are not necessarily the most efficient
now. To help you, we will explore strategies for improving your preparation techniques and
skills. We will also help you refine your assignment and examination performance skills.
3.2 Study thoroughly, do not memorise unthinkingly
Preparing for an examination is not just about learning and memorising facts and
information (such as the names of cases, titles of statutes or numbers of the rules of court)
so that you can regurgitate them. Simply memorizing and repeating information is not
enough to get you a good mark. University examination entails the following, among others:
Knowledge of what your lecturers expect of you
Consideration of the assessment criteria
Identification, selection and application of important legal principles and theories
Realistic self-expectations
Development of efficient and acceptable answering techniques and approaches
Application of relevant legislation to answer problem-type questions
It is essential that you know the content of all the statutory provisions and rules that you
have been instructed to study. This implies that you should also understand the content
thereof to such an extent that you are able to apply them when confronted with a given set
of facts.
3.3 Employ contextual and integrated study
Study the tutorial material in the context of the study guide as a whole. An example may
make this clearer: Do not study the magistrates’ courts jurisdiction in isolation. Ensure, as a
first step, that you understand what jurisdiction entails and why it is important; then study
the provisions governing jurisdiction in each of the courts in the court structure, note the
differences and their interrelation, and also understand why these differences exist.
3.4 Selective study
Do not study selectively. Please note that no portion of the study is excluded for
examination purposes, unless specifically so directed by your lecturers. The examination
paper is composed of questions drawn from all parts of the study guide.
4
Tutorial Letter 102/3/2021
Civil Procedure
CIV3701
Semesters 1 and 2
Department of Criminal and Procedural Law
This tutorial letter contains important information
about your module.
BARCODE
Dear Student
This tutorial letter contains the following:
, CIV3701/102
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION
2 APPROACH TO THE STUDY MATERIAL
3 HINTS ON EFFECTIVE STUDY AND PREPARATION
4 TYPE OF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS AND FORMULATION
5 ASSIGNMENT SKILLS NECESSARY
6 GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE EXAMINATION
7 CASE STUDIES
8 AMENDMENTS TO THE STUDY GUIDE
9 CONCLUDING REMARKS
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
We would like to welcome you to this module. We trust that you will find this tutorial letter
useful in your examination preparation. Although your preparation starts on page one of
both the study guide and tutorial letter 101 (in conjunction with the prescribed textbook),
your goal should not simply be to pass this module, but rather to pass it having gained
understanding and insight into the subject.
Many of you complain that Civil Procedure is an abstract subject. To change this perception
and to illustrate to you that Civil Procedure is used in everyday circumstances to solve
practical problems, we have decided to include a number of case studies. Use this tutorial
letter to develop and/or complement your learning in Civil Procedure, and remember that
your preparation for entering legal practice starts here.
1.2 Purpose of the tutorial letter
This tutorial letter is designed to guide and help you in studying Civil Procedure and in
preparing for the assignments and the examination. The goal is to better equip you with the
necessary skills and approaches for studying the module and for writing assignments and
the examination.
A good assignment and examination writing technique and approach will yield good results.
This tutorial letter therefore explores the do’s and don’ts of examination preparation and
examination taking skills, as well as strategies for improving your assignment and
examination answering skills. The tutorial letter looks at skills such as:
analysing past exam questions
planning essays
writing appropriately and accurately
arguing effectively, using appropriate concepts and theories
managing your time during an examination
2
, CIV3701/102
prioritising information in the examination
prioritising questions during the examination
knowing the negatives and positives of past exams
Mastery of the techniques of written response and good preparation are important aspects
of a good examination and assignment performance. If you follow the suggested study
method as described in this tutorial letter, you should not have any difficulty in mastering
the subject and passing CIV3701.
2 APPROACH TO THE STUDY MATERIAL
Because Civil Procedure is a practice orientated subject, your approach to studying the
subject contents will necessarily differ from how you approach predominantly theoretical
subjects. You will not pass this subject if you simply memorise the study material – you
need to understand it and you must be able to apply what you have learned to any given
set of facts. This implies that you should be able to, inter alia, analyse the various
processes and procedures and understand when each is applicable and why.
In practice, a client will not come to you and instruct you, for example, to issue a provisional
sentence summons: it is up to you to make that decision (based on the facts supplied to
you by your client), before explaining to your client why that is the correct or most
appropriate course of action to follow. This is not always easy: often you will be confronted
by a complex (or even jumbled) set of facts which you will have to sort through to enable
you to separate the relevant information from the irrelevant. You will also need to ask the
right questions to supplement inadequate information before you are able to decide on the
most appropriate procedural course to follow to achieve a particular goal. This course aims
to prepare you to meet such challenges. Therefore, when studying this module, we suggest
you place yourself in the position of a practitioner who either has to explain a procedure to
his or her client, or defend his or her decision before a court. This will result in your
constantly asking yourself the following type of questions: Why must procedure X, and not
procedure Y, be used? What is the difference between procedure X and procedure Y?
What is the purpose of a particular procedure? How and where does a particular procedure
fit into the whole litigation process? Is there another procedure which can be used to
achieve the same goal? How will I recognize a particular procedure? What is the next
procedural step? By constantly asking yourself these and similar questions while studying,
you will study the subject content with insight and you will be in a good position to handle
problem-type questions in the examination.
We often find that students tend to study the various processes and procedures in isolation,
and not with a view to understand how each one fits into the whole litigation process. This
creates problems when you have to answer problem-type questions in which a number of
these processes and procedures are linked, because you will not know how they are linked.
Please ensure that you understand the schematic outline of the whole litigation process
contained in study unit 16.3 and refer back to it regularly while studying. If you understand
this outline, it will be easier to understand where all the other related processes and
procedures fit in (such as the steps to be taken to rectify defective pleadings or applications
for interim payments).
It should be clear by now that you will not be able to master the work if you do not start
preparing early – two weeks before the examination simply will not suffice. Initially, you may
find most of the concepts and the terminology new and strange, but the more you go over
the work, the more accustomed to it you will become, and the less your chance of
becoming confused.
3
, CIV3701/102
This is a very interesting subject and you will find that there is an underlying logic to all the
processes and procedures – allow yourself the opportunity to discover this fact and enjoy
the subject!
3 HINTS ON EFFECTIVE STUDY AND PREPARATION
3.1 General remarks
As a distance education student, you are offered the benefit of controlling the time and pace
of your studies. However, this benefit may be fruitless without proper and efficient study and
preparation. There is simply no substitute for timeous, and thorough study and preparation
if you want to do well in your assessments. So, start very early in the semester or module
period. It is through good study and preparation that you will become well acquainted with
the subject matter.
Most students come to a distance education university with some ideas about how to go
about studying, and how to prepare and revise for an examination. However, the strategies
you used in the past may have been effective for the type of assessment done and the type
of institution you attended then, but those strategies are not necessarily the most efficient
now. To help you, we will explore strategies for improving your preparation techniques and
skills. We will also help you refine your assignment and examination performance skills.
3.2 Study thoroughly, do not memorise unthinkingly
Preparing for an examination is not just about learning and memorising facts and
information (such as the names of cases, titles of statutes or numbers of the rules of court)
so that you can regurgitate them. Simply memorizing and repeating information is not
enough to get you a good mark. University examination entails the following, among others:
Knowledge of what your lecturers expect of you
Consideration of the assessment criteria
Identification, selection and application of important legal principles and theories
Realistic self-expectations
Development of efficient and acceptable answering techniques and approaches
Application of relevant legislation to answer problem-type questions
It is essential that you know the content of all the statutory provisions and rules that you
have been instructed to study. This implies that you should also understand the content
thereof to such an extent that you are able to apply them when confronted with a given set
of facts.
3.3 Employ contextual and integrated study
Study the tutorial material in the context of the study guide as a whole. An example may
make this clearer: Do not study the magistrates’ courts jurisdiction in isolation. Ensure, as a
first step, that you understand what jurisdiction entails and why it is important; then study
the provisions governing jurisdiction in each of the courts in the court structure, note the
differences and their interrelation, and also understand why these differences exist.
3.4 Selective study
Do not study selectively. Please note that no portion of the study is excluded for
examination purposes, unless specifically so directed by your lecturers. The examination
paper is composed of questions drawn from all parts of the study guide.
4
