The HTS Law School Guide to Preparing a Case Brief

What is a Brief? Student Briefs Confusion often arises over the term “legal brief.” There are at least two different senses in which the term is used. Student Brief: A student brief is a short summary and analysis of the case prepared for use in classroom discussion. It is a set of notes, presented in a systematic way, in order to sort out the parties, identify the issues, ascertain what was decided, and analyse the reasoning behind decisions made by the courts. next

Preparing a Case Brief What is a brief?: Why brief a case? Essentially, a case brief is a well structured summary of a case.  Why brief a case?  Learning by doing (i.e.. writing) is often better than passive learning. (i.e.. merely reading the case). A summary often helps one remember the facts and issues of a case. Briefing a case helps to isolate legal rules, tests, and standards. Briefing provides practice in isolating relevant facts from irrelevant facts. Briefing provides practice in framing an issue. next

Key aspects of a case to be included within a brief: case citation nature of dispute procedural status relevant facts key issues relevant rules of law holding ratio dicidendi next

An Acceptable format for a Case Brief Case Citation Facts of the Case: Here the student should outline the essential facts of the case, particularly those facts bearing upon or leading up to the issue. (More…) Statement of Issue(s): Here the student should outline the dispute to be resolved by this particular court. For example, which rule of law should be applied? How should a given element of a rule be defined? What general principle(s) of law are illustrated by the case? Here the student should outline the reasoning behind the court's decision. (Was the court reasoning based on precedent, economics, politics, sociology, fairness, etc..?) The reasoning, or rationale, is the chain of argument which led the judges in either a majority or a dissenting opinion to rule as they did. This should be outlined point by point in numbered sentences or paragraphs. Court Holding: Here the student should indicate the decision of the court in this case. Analyses: Here the student should evaluate the significance of the case, its relationship to other cases, its place in history, and what is shows about the Court, its members, its decision-making processes, or the impact it has on litigants, government, or society. It is here that the implicit assumptions and values of the Justices should be probed, the “rightness” of the decision debated, and the logic of the reasoning considered hat was the decision of the court in this case? next

Facts of the Case A good student brief will include a summary of the pertinent facts and legal points raised in the case. It will show the nature of the litigation, what occurrences transpired. The fact section of a good student brief will include the following elements: A one-sentence description of the nature of the case, to serve as an introduction. A statement of the relevant law, with quotation marks or underlining to draw attention to the key words or phrases that are in dispute. A summary of the complaint (in a civil case) or the indictment (in a criminal case) plus relevant evidence and arguments presented in court to explain who did what to whom and why the case was thought to involve illegal conduct. A summary of actions taken by the lower courts, for example: defendant convicted; conviction upheld by appellate court; Supreme Court granted certiorari.

ISSUES: Statement of Issues The issues or questions of law raised by the facts particular to the case are often stated explicitly by the court. next

Rules of Law In any form of case analyses, it is important to be able to distinguish between a “law” and a “rule of law.” Law: A command enacted by a legislature, formally recognized as binding, and enforced by a controlling authority. Rule of Law: An accepted principle, test, or perspective that assists the judiciary in interpreting and applying a law. Rules of law can find their source in many places. For the most part, such rules are developed and recorded within case law. Over time these rules may become popularly known under certain names or terms, and they can often be expressed as a legal “test” that can then be applied to future cases. For example, the “Oakes Test,” developed in the landmark case R. v. Oakes (1986), is used to determine if Canadian legislation can survive an Article 1 (limitations clause) challenge. Still other rules of law may be contained in ancient and commonly accepted legal axioms, and are often expressed using a Latin phrase, such as “res judicata” – meaning that once a legal dispute has been decided, it cannot be litigated (tried) again.

DEFINITIONS: Holding Relevant LAW Final decision on the case that is being decided. Past cases, statues, and etc. that are submitted to forward the augment.