California Practice Guides and Form Books  

This guide lists many well-known and commonly-used practice guides and form books available in this library.  (Zief Law Library call numbers are given.)  To look for other practice guides on your topic, search Ignacio, USF's online catalog, by keyword (e.g., "administrative mandamus and California"), or by subject. 

This guide is organized by general topics, such as civil procedure and criminal procedure, jury instructions and multi-subject guides, and by specific practice areas for both litigation and transactional practices.  

Online sources: Many individual practice guides are available on Lexis and Westlaw. Some core materials are also available in group files:

• Matthew Bender: The LEXIS combined source MATBEN;CAPG contains the Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Series.

• Rutter Group: Westlaw's "multibase" TRG-CA contains all California Rutter Group guides.

• CEB Practice guides:  Most CEB practice guides are available via CEB's OnLaw [http://0-www.ceb.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/OnLAW/ipaccess] service.  [OnLaw is available off-campus to USF students, faculty, and staff]

• West's California Civil Practice (also known as Bancroft-Whitney's California Civil Practice): Westlaw's "multibase" CCP-ALL contains all California Civil Practice titles.

• Witkin: All of the Witkin publications are in the WITKIN database on Westlaw, and in the 2NDARY;WITKIN source on LEXIS.

Form books as practice guides and vice-versa: many form books also offer extensive analyses, explanations, and practice pointers. Likewise, many practice guides contain at least some basic forms.

Identifying form books in this guide: to find publications that are particularly rich in forms, look for [FORMS] at the end of the description.