A. Reading and Briefing Cases
As you probably know by now, the lion’s share of your time this year will be spent reading cases. Like generations of law students before you, you may begin to wonder why this process is more helpful than just being told the law.
The most obvious reason is that practicing lawyers need to know how to read a case and analyze it. The process of learning how to extract the rule from the case, and to separate the crucial facts from the unimportant ones, requires you to “think like a lawyer.” Analyzing cases and the rules they set forth and comparing that case precedent to new facts is the crux of what lawyers do for their clients.
Ultimately, reading and briefing cases remain fundamental law school skills. Learning to create a case brief is a time-honored method of mastering legal analysis and writing. A case brief is an
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Typically, this section of the brief should be about a sentence long. The issue is the basic, general question of law that the case must resolve. It may be open-ended or quite specific.
Rule: This is the most important part of any case brief. The study of law is largely the process of learning rules and applying them to new factual situations. Correctly stating the rule is critical to the case analysis and use. Make sure the rule section of your brief is accurate and complete.
Analysis: What reasoning did the court use to reach its conclusion? How did the rule(s) apply to the facts in this case? Case brief analysis includes a summary of the Court’s ruling and how it applies to the case at bar and future cases, and whether it is a narrow or broad ruling.
Conclusion: Also called the holding or disposition, this section simply states the answers to the following questions. What did the court decide? Was the case remanded back to a lower court, appealed or dismissed? Did someone win? Who won, and what did they
3. Procedural History: This matter comes before the court on motions of defendants for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, for new trial pursuant to Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and for amended judgment. We have considered defendants' motions collectively and individually and conclude that neither a new trial, judgment notwithstanding the verdict, nor amended judgment is warranted. The evidence supports the jury's verdict.
A summary of the case details (provide the circumstances surrounding the case, who, what, when, how)
Analysis / Ruling of the Court. The district court granted the employer’s motion for summary judgement on the sexual harassment claim due to the fact that Sherry Lynch treated both men and women equally in this case; that is, she behaved in the same vulgar and inappropriate way towards both genders. For this reason, Smith’s gender was not a contributing factor to the harassment, which is one of the conditions that would have to be met for the sexual harassment claim. The appellate court agreed and affirmed the district court’s judgement. The district court ended up excluding evidence pertaining to the sexual harassment claim because the sexual harassment claim had been dismissed on summary judgement, and because the court decided that the details of the harassment bore little relevance to the retaliation case whereas this evidence would be unfairly prejudicial to Hy-Vee. The appellate court affirmed the district court’s judgement. Smith did not offer any specifics on what evidence she would have wanted to present, which made it hard for the court to determine whether this evidence was material to the retaliation case or not. In her opposition to the motion in limine, she said she only wanted to discuss the harassment case in general, including mentioning that Lynch had harassed/touched her inappropriately. Hy-Vee had no objection to this, and Smith got to present this much evidence in the trial. Therefore, the appellate court found that she waived any objection to the
The following questions need to be answered to further the case pertaining Greene’s v. Jennifer Lawson:
I created each section, following the requirements of the project, while adding in slides that would help further the understanding of the case. Moreover, I was in charge of allocating each member a part of the project and did so by starting a group chat, which I would check and regularly correspond with each member, helping them find information in both academic journals and online resources. For my specific part in the slides I focused on the controversial aspects of the case such as the guarantee of acquittal and stereotypes that may come about due to the branding of battered women and the use of expert testimony in which I focused on the charge to the jury and the usefulness of the expert. I used the textbook along with online resources and academic journals to understand both issues and to solidify a comprehensive anecdote on the topics. Finally I proof read each of the group member’s work and formatted it so each side looked the same and were appealing. I then compiled the sources used and put them into APA format in accordance with the schools citing
The intent of this summary is to bring up some key factors relating to the case and how, more than a simple judgment or emotional response, defend my understanding that this case has many different angles of approach.
as to whether or not a case is taken up. This is what decides the
Majority Opinion- Officially called the Opinion of the Court; announces the Court’s decision in a case and sets out the reasoning upon which it is based
After analyzing the discourse community of law and the detailed process lawyers take in order to write an effective appeals brief, one can see that lawyers have a very specific and unique way of communicating that includes certain jargon unfamiliar and possibly incomprehensible to the general public. Although writing an appeal brief is only one aspect of many that government prosecuting attorneys such as Kenny Elser face in their jobs on a daily basis, it is also a very necessary job because not only is it used by a single discourse community in the law profession but utilized by the discourse community of law as a whole.
Council V Greater London Council (1982), Searose Ltd V Seatrain (UK). Ltd. in the year 1981. There are certain elements that a Judicial Precedent is dependent upon. they are that the material facts of the case must be the same. principle must be a proposition of law, it must form part of the Ratio.
My understanding of case management comes from an accumulation of lecture, readings, and a little bit of research. At first I thought case management meant to manage a case, which it kind of does, but it is a lot of background work that goes unnoticed from the workers part. One thing for sure I can say about case management is that is a very stressful and demanding job for the worker, therefore, you have to be a responsible worker, so that your client can hopefully get the services and resources he or she may need. As a case management worker your responsibilities are many, for example you are to educate, empower and enable your client to be self sufficient.
In all, this assignment has helped me a lot by enforcing the need to research before making great decisions. One great decision in my life at this moment is trying to decide on a major and trying to reveal and find out what I really want to be. This assignment has helped me discover what it is like to get into a good law school, what the work load is like, what types of law there is to pursue a career in, and what the salary is. All these components will keep me grounded and stay true to what I originally wanted to pursue which is a career in the legal system of our country.
Some characteristics and skills you might need if you want to become a lawyer would be problem-solving skills, research skills, speaking skills, and writing skills. “Lawyers have different titles such as prosecutors and defense attorneys. (2016 CollegeGrad LLC). Lawyers advise and represent numerous people such as clients in courts, government agencies, and in private legal matters. All attorneys research the intent of laws and judicial decisions and apply the laws to the specific circumstances that their clients face (2016 CollegeGrad LLC). Newly hired attorneys usually start as associates and also work with more experienced lawyers and
Schwartz, Bernard. Decision: How the Supreme Court Decides Cases. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.
Researching and Making the Court Papers: The Lawyers have to brief the court about the case well in advance about the issues to be discussed.