We now come to the only part of civil procedure about which you thought you knew something before starting law school. Trials are a familiar part of our general social knowledge. They have been the stuff of drama for centuries, and of the scriptures of several major religious traditions for millennia, in this tradition, trial, the culminating moment of every lawsuit, brings truth to light as witnesses blurt out surprising statements, or juries do justice in the face of apparently overwhelming adverse evidence. And when the verdict arrives, the case is over: Victors beam, losers slink away.