Thursday, April 28, 2011

How to Briefing a Case for Law School


Learning to brief cases effectively is one of the first skills a first year in any law school around the nation must learn-- and learn quickly. The retention of first year law school reading assignments depends upon students' ability to read, understand, and brief cases properly. First year law students around the nation spend class hours feeling tense, anxious, and stressed-- and these feelings can easily be alleviated by a good case brief. So how does one effectively brief a case for law school*?

Facts
The first section on any law school brief should be the facts section. Pretty self-explanatory, in this section you should write the main and key facts of the case. You should write down facts in your brief that will help you remember what the case was about-- so, 'boy gets electrocuted by trolley wire' may be all you need. If your Professor tends to ask detailed questions about the facts of the case, this section should be more detailed too.

Procedural History
Most cases that law students read are Appellate cases-- hardly ever will first years read Trial court decisions-- which means that most of the cases you read will have histories. In this section you will write what happened to the case in the lower courts-- what was the trial court decision? What was the middle Appellate court say? Which party now appeals and why?

Issue
The issue section of a case is a very important part of your case brief because it tells you what exactly the question is that the court is now addressing/seeking to answer. Most issues will surround whether the lower courts abused their discretion or whether the Judge erred in instructing the jury.

Arguments
A primary goal of many law Professors is to teach first year law students how to identify and construct arguments. Professors often will ask students what each party in a case argued, so it is important that case briefs touch on party arguments. READ MORE

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