MASSACHUSETTS PROCEDURAL FORMS, ANNOTATED.

1964 Third Edition. By Robert M. Rodman '34. Boston:Boston Law Book Company. Three vols.,2194 pp. $75.00.

When I reviewed Mr. Rodman's 1949 second edition, consisting of one volume, in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, I stated that his 1941 first edition had been the best of its kind, and that the second edition had considerably enlarged the scope of the work so as to become invaluable to practitioners in Massachusetts.

This edition is an exhaustive collection of tested forms of pleading and practice in civil actions. Many forms have been passed upon and adjudicated by the courts, and many others have been prepared and drafted by the author. It is a practical work based on practical problems. The new three-volume work not only contains completely revised chapters and sections, but also has added new parts and chapters relating to extraordinary remedies and writs, and to Federal Practice.

At the beginning of each chapter is a textual treatment with citations and footnotes. Author's Comments follow each form, and contain practice hints and citations to cases, statutes and court rules. These latter features are unusual in a procedural form book in that practitioners obtain substantial assistance and information relating to substantive law as well as to procedural law.

The work contains cross references to other units in the Massachusetts PracticeSeries, and the library references include the Key Number and Corpus Juris Secundum.

The index has been expanded and improved to include references to text and forms. The index is very thorough, consisting of 116 pages in itself, so that users may readily find what they are seeking.

Mr. Rodman's three-volume work, which is basically concerned with procedural forms, is not only invaluable to the relatively new practitioner, but is also a source of constant reference to the more experienced practitioner. It contains the sort of material in ready reference which the practitioner constantly needs at his fingertips, and is both informative and time saving. Material is contained within the covers of Mr. Rodman's form books which is not available in any other text and can only be gleaned through time and effort by referring to one or more other sources.

I consider Mr. Rodman's work to be the most valuable contribution in the field of litigation which a practitioner could possess, and find that I use it constantly.

Attorney-at-law