A case brief is a shortened, concise summary of a court opinion, usually in outline form. Hence the term “brief.” Typically this is used for more effective self-study. Obviously, it’s a lot easier to read a well-written case brief example rather than going through a verbatim case which is about 100 pages long. It can also be used to present a case to other people as it is a lot simpler than the actual case file. So basically, this document is a reduced and summarized court opinion which would contain all the key elements and would discuss the main point of the court’s opinion.
It should contain all the basic elements in order to be efficient and understandable. These elements are:
It should be a short summary which is written in your own words. As you are reading a sample case brief or you are learning how to write a case brief, you’d see that it’s basically a paraphrased version of the actual legal document. When you are making your own brief, you would be able to understand the case a lot more as you are paraphrasing. This is because you would have to find the key points in the reference document so you would really have to read through it thoroughly. Never attempt to copy from the document verbatim so you won’t end up getting into any trouble.
Before you actually learn how to write a case brief, let’s take a look at what they are for. Typically this document is made and used by law students, using their own words. When creating one, make sure to focus on the most important aspects to be able to come up with a complete and comprehensive summary.
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The most basic reason why a law student would create a sample case brief is in preparation for the class. Different cases which are found in textbooks used in law school differ in length so it is essential to pick out all the vital information from the cases and present them in a summarized and organized way. Once done, you would be able to refer to them easily while you are in class.
Making a brief would also help you understand and process what you are reading about a case. If your professor happens to call you to answer a question in class, you would already be prepared.
Aside from making use of it in class, you as a student may make a brief in order to get all the key aspects and information for the purposes of legal writing and research. Usually there is a whole course or class focused on this and you’d most likely have a lot of practice making briefs for it. In this context, briefing cases would help you out in identifying the most crucial information for you to be able to complete any legal analysis and arguments.
Finally, case briefs are important to build the foundation for further and more advanced studies. As you are reading through cases and creating briefs, you will be able to integrate all the information then develop a better understanding of all the laws involved in the subject, or the process called outlining.
These are the main and most common reasons why law students make briefs. As you can see, they are relevant reasons which move to improve the understanding of cases and other relevant topics. Now let’s take a look at the components of such a document.
If you take a look at different case brief examples, you would see that they are all different but they do have the same components. These components are important as they contain relevant information about the cases, which you would have to find and write down. The components are:
Parties Involved
The very first component would be who are the parties involved in the case. You can identify the parties either by name or by the titles based on their roles in the case. If you’d like your brief to be more specific, you can use both the names and the titles of the parties who are involved.
Court
You would have to include the court which had heard the case. There are different kinds of courts who can hear cases:
Citation
The citation is basically the information which would state where the case was published and it should be included in your brief. This is added so that the reader/s of your brief would be able to easily find the original file for the case.
Date of the Citation
Aside from the citation, you must also include the date the case had been decided. This is important because you may have to trace how legal issues have developed or evolved over time and the dates would help you out.
Procedural History
Simply put, this is the history of the whole case. It would contain:
Issues
To be able to find the issues easily, you can refer to the table of contents, the section and chapter headings, case introductions and case notes which are usually found after the case itself.
Facts
Include all the necessary facts and context facts. Necessary facts are those which are legally important while context facts are those which would help you understand the necessary facts. To be able to give a clearer picture of the whole case, both kinds of facts have to be included.
Holding
This is the answer to all the legal questions which were asked in the case. It would be the answer to the question, “How did the court resolve all the issues?”
Reasoning
This is the most important component of your brief. You can establish the reasoning by looking for the locations where the court is applying the law to the different facts. When writing this part, remember to use your own words to get a better understanding of everything you’ve read.
Finally, make sure to include the judgment made. This is what the court had done as a result of the holding. This is how the appellate court managed to resolve the case and it could give directions to the trial court.
These are the essential components of a brief which should be included if you are planning to make one. You may have to go through a lot of written material in order to make a brief but by the end of it, one of the main goals is that you’ve already understood the whole case very well. Now let’s move on to discussing reasons for writing such a document.
Whether you’re making a sample case brief or a real one, you would have different reasons for writing it. A lot of writing and research is involved in studying law and making briefs is just one of them. Let’s look at the top five reasons why you should be writing briefs:
Making a brief is really useful and beneficial especially if you are a law student. It basically aids in your studies and helps you learn a lot better. Now let’s move on to the next section which would actually help you make great case brief examples.
To really learn how to write a case brief, you’d need some helpful tips to guide you. With these tips, you may be able to write a good brief which would help you out even further in your studies. Once you know how to effectively write a great case brief, each time you write one, it will get easier. Here are some helpful tips for you:
These are tips for law students who are planning to create a brief. Here are more practical and general tips to follow when creating a brief for whatever other reason.
These tips would help you out a lot but you should also think about mistakes you should avoid. Knowing the dos and don’ts of legal writing is essential, especially if you plan to write a lot of documents, letters and other similar texts.
Mistakes are a lot more disastrous especially when they are made when writing legal documents. So whether you’re writing a case brief or any other kind of legal document, it would be helpful for you to know these common mistakes to avoid. Read on to learn about and avoid making these errors in writing:
Don’t Write Using a Passive Tone
Generally, it would be a lot safer to use an active voice over a passive one. It not only avoids confusion but it would emphasize that you are writing the document based on your own experiences and using your own words. It also creates a stronger impact on legal documents overall.
Avoid Ambiguous Pronouns
An ambiguous pronoun happens when the pronoun may refer to more than one person in the same sentence. When you use such pronouns, the readers may get confused as to who you are actually referring to. When using pronouns, make sure they only refer to one person as to avoid confusion or misinterpretation.
Watch Out for Lengthy Content
In writing certain documents, like a case brief, you would have to avoid writing everything down. You may be thinking that you don’t want to miss out on anything but actually, the lengthy content is unnecessary. Also, when the content is too long, readers are put off by it and would end up just skimming through the document, which renders your document almost useless. So remember, include all the relevant information but present it briefly and directly.
Check Your Homophones
There are plenty of words which sound the same but have very different definitions. Unfortunately, these words are very common in legal documents so you have to be very careful when using them. Such homophones which have different meanings are:
Using Verbs as Nouns
It’s quite a common mistake in legal writing when verbs and nouns are interchanged. This is referred to as nominalization, when a verb is used as a noun, which is incorrect and often unnecessary. You can improve your writing a great deal by avoiding nominalizations whenever you can.
Using Legalese Too Much
Legalese is basically any technical jargon used in legal writing. Actually, in any kind of writing, when technical jargon is used too much, it makes the text very difficult to understand. You may either want to sound smart or you may want to use such terms to make the document “more legal,” but actually it doesn’t. When appropriate, it’s okay to use such jargon but when overused, it becomes ineffective and redundant.
Not Proofreading
Proofreading is a very important final step in making any kind of document, even a case brief. When you are writing or working on a particular document for a long time, you may tend to ignore or overlook common mistakes in spelling and grammar. A good practice would be to proofread your work as soon as you’re done. You can also ask someone else to proofread your work to check if you had missed any mistakes.
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