Law School Companion

If you are a law student, then it is must for you to learn how to brief cases. Writing a case brief can be a tedious task, unless and until you have not prepared the format.  No matter what case you are preparing for, the format and the basic information of a case brief are the same.

Here are the tips for writing case brief.

• Facts – Pinpoint and summarize the determinative facts of a case. Your main purpose here is that, you should be able to tell the summary of the case without omitting any important information. In addition, do not include too many superfluous facts.
• Procedure – In this section, record the dates of case filings, trials, court rulings, motions of summary judgment and verdicts i.e. you want to list what happened in the lower court.
• Issue – Prepare the issues or main issue in the case in the form of questions in a way that they can be answered by yes or no.
• Holding – The holding should begin with yes or no, and should answer the question you asked in the previous section Issue Presented. Searching the holding of a case is sometime not an easy task; it usually depends on the writing style of the jury.  If the judgment says “We hold that…”, then you are fortunate, since it is the holding that you are looking for. Otherwise, look for the lines in the opinion that answer your question.
• Rule of Law – This section is often called as black letter law. Since, you have to identify the principle of law on which the judge is giving the resolution of the case.
• Reasoning – This is the most important and longest section of your case brief.  Because in this section, you have to list the reasons of the court verdicts; why the court ruled the way it did. Law professors love to discuss the reasoning of a case in class discussion. So, make sure that you have recited the reasoning in cogent, organized and clear manner.
• Dissenting/Concurring Opinion – It may not be required to completely brief the dissenting or concurring opinions, but pinpoint the dissenting or concurring judge’s main point of conflict with the rationale and jury’s opinion. However, it will be significant for your classroom discussion, especially when the law professor utilizes the Socratic Method.