Organizing Your Legal Analysis IRAC Review

Remember! The legal method for thinking and writing like a lawyer is represented the acronym: Issue Rule Application Conclusion

Five Steps in Drafting the Legal Analysis Shapo 2H(1)

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY THE RULE OF LAW Where do you find the rule of law? What is the rule of law? What is an unreasonable risk?

STEP TWO: IDENTIFY THE ISSUE Now that you know the rule of law, you can draft an issue statement. What is the legal issue in Aarons v. Peterson? Whether Peterson created an unreasonable risk by leaving the tools in his basement.

STEP THREE: DRAFT THE RULES SECTION What did I tell you was the answer to every essay question in law school?

STEP THREE: DRAFT THE RULES SECTION Upon what did our prediction depend when we were deciding whether the green apple went inside or outside the basket?

STEP THREE: DRAFT THE RULES SECTION How will a court determine whether a risk is unreasonable/forseeable? What analytical categories will the court use? 1) By examining the tool/object for its obvious and intrinsic danger AND 2) By considering accessibility of the tool/object. What should be in your rules section?

STEP THREE: DRAFT THE RULES SECTION Remember! When the rule is derived from a case: and the facts are important, use a case discussion. and the facts are unimportant, prepare a rule sentence. You will often use both rule sentences and case discussions.

STEP THREE: DRAFT THE RULES SECTION Review: 3 Parts of a case discussion. 1) Introduce the case and set the stage by giving a sentence or two of the relevant facts. 2) Give the court’s holding. 3) Give helpful reasoning.

STEP FOUR: DRAFT THE APPLICATION SECTION Most of the time, it will not be enough to identify the rule of law from cases and then apply the rule to your case. Using the court’s rule/analytical categories, you must point out relevant similarities and relevant distinctions with the precedent case.

Obvious and Intrinsic Danger

Accessibility

STEP FOUR: DRAFT THE APPLICATION SECTION Do not forget to include relevant counter-arguments at the end of the respective application section. What if the court in Smith v. Allen had made the statement, “Unlike a knife, a golf club is not commonly used as a weapon”?

STEP FIVE Draft the Conclusion: The Court will likely find… Compared with the golf club, is the hammer an obvious and intrinsic danger? A hammer probably is not. Compared with the club in the backyard was the hammer accessible? It was probably was reasonable to have the hammer in the basement.

Case Synthesis In exercise 2H(1), you extracted a rule a law from ONE case and applied its analytical categories to our facts. Most of the time you will be applying and comparing the analytical categories across multiple cases.

Case Synthesis Actually, there are 3 types of case synthesis: 1) Grouping cases according to one rule. 2) Identifying/ comparing analytical categories or factors across cases. 3) Defining elements of an evolving claim.

Comparing Analytical Categories Across Cases: Shapo 2J. p., 53

What are the analytical categories in determining whether a defendant is in immediate flight from a robbery? Time after the robbery Distance from other defendant

Time Moments 1hr 2hrs 6hrs 1day Distance Close by 50miles

Relationship Ongoing Ended Time Moments 1hr 2hrs 6hrs 1day

Case Synthesis Remember the 3 types of case synthesis: 1) Grouping cases according to one rule. 2) Identifying/ comparing analytical categories or factors across cases. 3) Defining elements of an evolving claim.

Defining the elements of an evolving claim over multiple cases. Alabama’s Shotgun Law Defining the elements of an evolving claim over multiple cases.