A+ Guide to Legal Case Briefs: A+ Guides to Writing, #8

About the A+ Method

You have purchased this booklet because you are looking for help with a writing assignment. Good news! Help is here!

The A+ Method was developed through years spent working with student writers on a variety of writing assignments. Regardless of the specific assignment type (five-paragraph essay, persuasive essay, narrative essay, literature review, etc.), it soon became clear that students shared one strong concern. They wanted to know what to put where. They had ideas about their topics, and they knew what they wanted to say, but they didn’t know how to present those ideas in an organized manner so that the paper could flow well.

The A+ Method assists the students with overcoming that concern. Each type of assignment follows a unique writing pattern, and each A+ Method booklet presents that pattern in easy-to-follow steps. The pattern shows the writer what to put where. Along the way, each booklet also addresses other writing concerns typical to a specific assignment type. By focusing on assignment type rather than on writing essays in general, each specific booklet targets the pedagogical goals in a way that leads to a greater likelihood of student success.

Choose the booklet that corresponds to your assignment type, and then follow the steps in the booklet. Working the steps carefully the first time will not only lead to a finished paper, but to a better understanding of how to write a specific type of paper. Then, with subsequent similar assignments, use the booklet as a refresher to guarantee that you will hit the assignment targets each time.

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How to Use This Booklet

You must write a legal case brief, either for school or for internal use in a law firm or other legal setting. However, even though you have seen other case briefs, you are not sure how to brief a case. Maybe you have never written a brief like this before and do not know what it should look like. Maybe you have written a document like this in the past, but you were unhappy with the product and you want to do better this time. Maybe, no matter your skills and experiences, you are just looking for extra help so that this kind of document will be easier to complete.

If you find it difficult to plan and draft a case brief, it is probably not your fault. Law schools typically do not teach case briefing at all, but they expect the students to figure it out independently. Some undergraduate legal studies programs, paralegal certification courses, and other similar training programs might assign case briefs without giving sufficient instruction on how to write one. Even when there is instruction, writing instructors often focus on aspects of legal theory instead of on writing itself. Although it is important to understand the legal theory in a case, case briefing relies upon additional skills, specifically, an analytical skill set for which understanding legal theory is just one aspect. Therefore, you might find it difficult to brief a case simply because the skills you have been taught, while important, are just one aspect of the writing process.

For example, maybe your instructor spent some time explaining the purpose of a case brief. This is an important foundation concept, and we will discuss that in this booklet, too. However, will this tell you how to organize your ideas? No. Will it tell you what to put in each section of the brief? No. Will it help you organize the paragraphs? No. For that, a different kind of instruction is needed.

This booklet can help you by showing you the complete process of briefing a case. This practical, systematic method will start with a basic discussion of the purpose of case briefs and end with a final proofreading. In between that first and last step, you will learn how to write each section of a case brief, section by section. These sectional breakdowns show you exactly what to include in different places within the brief. You will no longer need to guess what to write and where to write it. By using the breakdown, the various pieces of the document will work together to create a coherent and complete brief.

For the purposes of this booklet, it does not matter if you skip around and take the sections out of order. The booklet will proceed in the pattern most case briefs adopt:

Procedural History

Facts

Issue

Holding

Rationale

Most writers will also find it easiest to write the sections in this order. However, if you find it easier to write the facts first, then start with the facts. If you prefer to write the rationale first, write the rationale first. Just be sure to include all sections of the brief even if you skip around and write the sections out of order.

This booklet not only helps you brief a case, but it shows you a critical thinking process important to the practice of law. Working the sections carefully the first time will teach you the method. Then, when you must brief another case, use this booklet as a reference to help you remember what each section must include. The more you use the method, the easier it will be.

Note: This booklet will not cover legal citation in depth. A shortcut and some basic citation tips will be presented in the section on case brief headings, but for more information about citation, please consult the Bluebook.

Special Note Concerning Types of Briefs

In legal writing, the word brief is used for two different types of documents.

Type 1: A Case Brief.

Case briefs are documents that summarize a single case. These documents are used for a number of purposes, but they are never filed with courts in the course of litigation. These briefs are informative in nature.

Type 2: A Court Brief

Also called a Memorandum, a court brief is a document arguing a legal position taken by one party in a case presently pending before the court. These documents are filed with the court and become part of the formal legal record of the case. These briefs are persuasive in nature.

This booklet deals with the first kind of brief, the case brief that is not filed with a court.

Step One: Understand the Purpose of a Case Brief

TIP:

Honor the process. Case briefing allows you to develop many important skills, no matter your career goals.

Case briefs are specialized documents with a specific purpose: to condense a written legal opinion into the essential details. Case briefs summarize complex ideas, which can make them tricky to write. However, by making sure you have the right assortment of sections and the right information in each section, you will have an easier task of simplifying and summarizing the case.

Many law students do not want to learn to write case briefs. They know that briefing cases is something associated with entry-level legal study, and they hope to skip this part of the process and go straight to the advanced aspects of legal study. But that would be a mistake. Case briefing sharpens analytical skills and provides a solid foundation for advanced study. If you wish to succeed in a legal profession, learn case briefing.

Paralegals and clerks also learn case briefing, for much the same reason. Case briefing is a great way to sharpen the thinking skills that lead to success in a legal profession. However, paralegals and law clerks will use case briefs in a different manner from law students. Where law students brief cases as a study tool, paralegals and law clerks brief cases because that is often a critical component of their jobs. Many busy attorneys delegate research tasks to staff members, and that can include briefing cases.

Moreover, case briefing provides many benefits, no matter which sector of the legal profession you work in. Here is a brief sampling of some of the ways case briefing will translate to better thinking skills and better professional practice.

* Case briefing improves your reading skills. By knowing which aspects of a case are the key details worthy of inclusion in a case brief, you will be able to focus on those key details as you read cases. Even if you do not brief a case, the practice of previous case briefing will help you rapidly break down and absorb any case you read.

* Case briefing aides in memory recall. The simple process of reducing a case to its vital elements will help you store those details in your memory better. And if you find you need to refresh that memory, the case brief itself will prove a useful tool. In class, during bar exam preparation, and while preparing for important oral arguments, case briefs are critical tools for memorizing large amounts of material.

* Case briefing will help you know what to ask when interviewing clients, witnesses, and other people in a practical setting. Because case briefing trains you to sift through facts to identify what is relevant, your note-taking process and time management in an interview will be improved, too.

* Case briefing will help you formulate an understanding of common procedural patterns in the practice of law. After briefing many cases in the same practice area, you will see which types of cases frequently incorporate important procedures such as motions to dismiss, discovery disputes, and motions for summary judgment.

* Case briefing will improve your understanding of the law itself. Some laws are derived from statutes, but these statutes still must be interpreted in the cases. Some laws are derived entirely from the cases themselves without reference to any statutes or other formal codifications. Thus, it could be said that knowing the case law means knowing the law.

Now that the purpose and benefits of a case brief are clear, let’s look at each section, one at a time.

Step Two: The Heading (citation)

TIP:

There are shortcuts for citations, but you will never regret learning the details.

The first part of a case brief, at the top of the page, is the heading. This usually appears in Bluebook citation format. Bluebook refers to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, which is published by the Harvard Law Review Association, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. The Bluebook is the standard system adopted by courts and legal practitioners, and learning Bluebook citation style is unavoidable for good practice standards.

Thus, a case brief heading will normally appear as a citation using