Why even Case Brief?
Everyone has case brief anxiety. It is easy to see why after looking at all the lame-ass articles on Google and everywhere else published by every known expert “dolt” in the universe. Reading all the can’t reach up to touch bottom advice simply gets us sick.
Doing a case brief is the first big lie that law students are faced with. As a fledgling lawyer, you should learn to question everything and only deal in facts. The first fact that something is wrong is why are the cases in the casebook edited? A good lawyer would simply ask what are they hiding? And the answer is a lot. Most cases that are edited are hiding what the case stands for. Usually, the dissents go off on the majority and excoriate them with their new theory of law. So why brief the edited case when you can quickly read or skim the real case and find out what you are supposed to know.
There are no right answers in a case brief. There is only good legal analysis.
Our first bit of advice is don’t bother to brief the edited version of the case in the casebook. Get the full version of the case. Once you have the full version you will be shocked at what they hide from you.
Because the Socratic method is teaching on the cheap once a principle of law is introduced to you, you will for the most part never see that principle used again in other cases in the casebook. It is really hard to learn something you have seen just once or twice. But if you brief the entire case you see it all the time it is in all the cases in the casebook and not just once or twice.
You will see a large number of the same issues over and over and over again and you can easily learn the law after you read about a case or an issue 10 to 20 times. By that time you will know what it stands for and how to apply the law from that case or the legal issues presented.
Don’t be stupid. You must brief the entire case.
Fundamentals of Good Case Briefs
Doing a good brief is really simple and easy. Many so-called authors and experts in this field will have you believe that there are different levels and styles and one level or style is better than the other. Don’t believe it for a nanosecond. When you do a case brief use this format:
Title of the Case
Citation
CASE: A short description of the case is what is needed here. identify the parties as P for plaintiff and D for defendant.
FACTS: A detailed summary of the important facts that are necessary for the ruling in the case or are part of the prima facie case law needed to rule on the case.
ISSUE: State a question of law in the case in such a way that it can be answered yes or no.
RULE OF LAW: State the rule of law in the case by simply restating the issue and answering the question it begs.
HOLDING AND DECISION: (State the Judge’s name here).
- (1) List all the laws that the court discusses or gives to build its ruling upon. Almost always the court will give the rules of law that are fundamental to the case in the first part of each decision it makes. State all that law in the first part of your holding.
- (2) State the legal analysis the court uses to make its decision.
- (3) Repeat steps 1-2 for each separate holding the court makes in the case; this may occur a large number of times as many cases have multiple rules of law.
- (4) Tell the final status of the case as to whether it was reversed, affirmed, remanded, etc.
- (5) Repeat steps 1-3 for each dissent, or concurrence and label them Concurrence: Dissent: (State the Judge’s name here) and then add the 1-3 verbiage for each.
LEGAL ANALYSIS: If you know anything about the law, which you don’t, state something relevant about the law. Here are some helpful hints as to what should go in a legal analysis for a case brief:
- How did the court construe facts and legal principles to come to its conclusions?
- What theories did it discuss and which theories did it accept as controlling in this case and why?
- Did the court leave legal questions or issues unresolved? Is the court so confused and out of it that it didn’t solve any issues other than the factual issue presented and it had enormous difficulty trying to theorize what it did so that others could make future use of the decision?
- If you have a dictionary always identify and include their definitions in your case brief particularly Latin words used.
- How does this case relate to other cases in the same general area of law and what does this case show about judicial policy-making?
- Are the case and its result just or fair from a gut-level reaction?
- Could the judge have done a better job?
- Is the judge just a political hack who does not believe in the rule of law or is the judge legislating from the bench?
- Compare this case and its results to other cases in the same area of law in the casebook.
Don’t worry about this because you can’t do it. REMEMBER: You don’t know any law and you have not read 1000 cases in the same topical area. If you did, this part is really easy.
And here is another shocker, most of the so-called Tier-1 experts who write canned briefs don’t know the law either. And their legal analysis in most of their canned casebriefs is childish and stupid.
But we have the ultimate weapon for use in case briefs which is Dean’s Law Dictionary. If you simply go into Dean’s and search for the case or the same legal concepts you will find a large amount of relevant legal analysis and theories presented in the case that you can easily copy and paste into your brief. You will learn something about the law if you do this.
Oh did we forget to mention that the legal analysis in Dean’s is backed up by lots and lots of case cites, cites from treatises, and cites from statutes. It is authoritative to quote the legal geniuses at Tier-1 schools.
Learning the law is actually interesting and fun when you do it the right way.
And this begs the question. Where do we get almost all our Legal Analysis about the case in our case briefs? Why Dean’s Law Dictionary of course.
Why you must do Case Briefs
Doing a brief helps you understand the case and organize it in a manner so it makes sense. The case briefing process helps you learn the application of the law. The more you do briefs the more law you will know how to apply. That is a really great reason to brief the entire case and not just the one in the casebook. Also, briefing minority opinions almost always give you a counterargument that you can write on your exams so you will always cover both sides of an issue.
Using a Case brief for Exam Studying.
With all that being said, never use your case brief to study for exams. A brief is not made to study for exams but is made to help you learn the application of the law. It is important that you take what you learn from the brief and make sure that it finds its way into your outline immediately after class. Remember one other fact, when you brief there will be rules of law in your briefs, either be extremely familiar with them or memorize them if they are part of your outline and considered prima facie case law. If you have a good law outline, this final process will not be too difficult for you to figure out. Read the law outline section to find out what we are talking about.
Doing a Case Brief by Book Briefing
Book briefing with a highlighter is a big mistake as it destroys the casebook making it impossible to resell back to the bookstore or online. If you do this do it in pencil. Also if you are book briefing you are not doing a brief of the entire case. That is a big mistake.
Using a Canned Case Brief
If you are taking the time to read the entire case you will need to save some time. Of course, we highly recommend getting our canned case briefs. Never use a free brief taken off a website. That is more akin to the blind leading the blind. They are poorly written and many times reflect the strange and radical opinions of ultra-left-wing law professors.
Our canned briefs will save you hundreds of hours of time each semester. BUT YOU MUST STILL READ THE ENTIRE CASE AND FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON. Then read our canned brief and add or subtract and create your work product.
Doing a Case Brief is not a substitute for Memorizing the Law.
Do not think for a second because you have a good case brief that you will do well on an exam. If you understand the case that does not mean you can recall its use in a prima facie case on a law school exam. Law school exam writing requires Memorization, Application, and Dissertation. Doing a great brief only gives you one of the three; Application. We see time and time again students who really understand the law dead cold and yet do poorly on exams because they missed the issues because they did not memorize the law.
A massive flaw in the cheap ass Socratic casebook method
The Socratic method does not work and has never worked but law schools play pretend that it does and because they have influence over you, you have to agree with them or they get very upset.
Most of the law can be learned simply by understanding the prima facie case. Once you do ask if that element of the prima facie case is present and answer that question off the top of your head. Such questions as, “Was there communication, or Were the terms definite and certain, or Was there an identified offeree?” can be answered without going to law school.
The rest of the prima facie case terms involve idiomatic law. They are hard to answer as you must understand the concept. But here is why that is difficult. There may be 27 key areas of law in a concept such as felony murder. Your casebook only has 5 felony murder cases and so you are lucky if you learn just 5 of the key concepts. Worse yet, you have to piece those 5 together as each case presents only little bits of the full concept. So even if you are successful you only know 5 of 27 bits. There is no way even if you know what is in the casebook you will know the concept.
But don’t fret or worry because it is all covered in Dean’s Law Dictionary. Go there and learn the idiomatic law. You will have more than enough time if you use our canned case briefs.
