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hello I'm looking forward to being with
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you on the first day of orientation but
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before then we wanted to provide you
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with some information about briefing
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cases you all know that the ultimate
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vehicle for resolving disputes under our
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legal system is litigation I hope you
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also appreciate that most disputes never
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get to trial never even get to the
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filing of a of a lawsuit they're settled
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by agreement but you're going to be
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reading situations where that did not
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occur and where the matter went not only
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to a trial court but on up to at least
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one appellate court I also want you to
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appreciate the difference between legal
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issues and fact issues example the
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question is a store liable to a customer
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who slipped on water that was spilled by
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a store employee that question is a
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legal issue it asks a legal question in
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contrast if we had a question was the
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water spilled by a store employee or by
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a customer that's a fact issue many
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disputes involve only fact issues the
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parties have no disagreement about what
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the legal principles that govern might
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be their entire dispute is over what
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actually happened you're not going to
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read cases like that you're going to
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read cases that might have some factual
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disputes but the legal issues will
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predominate now I want to talk about a
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tool that you're going to need to use to
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help you analyze the cases that you read
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it's called a case brief it's a set of
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structured notes it's a tool for you
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nobody else is going to see it nobody
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else is going to read it so you can
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structure it as you wish but I've got
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some suggestions on at least one way to
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do it and maybe since you're beginners
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you might want to try my way at the
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beginning and adjust accordingly as you
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go on through the semester the first
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thing you need in your in your case
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brief
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is the caption now that's pretty easy
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because that's going to be in the
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casebook many of you read Gideon's
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trumpet by Anthony Lewis so I'm going to
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use that Gideon versus Wainwright case
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as an example if you were reading Gideon
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in a case book this is what you'd see
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Gideon V Wainwright 372 us three fifty
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five parentheses 1963 for your caption
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you need the Gideon V Wainwright part
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you don't need the numbers right you're
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not going to be looking up finding to
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find the volume or the page number where
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this case may be found because it's in
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your case book but what you do have to
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do is figure out what that abbreviation
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US means what court does that stand for
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well it stands for the United States
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Supreme Court so here's how your caption
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will look
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Gideon V Wainwright United States
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Supreme Court 1963 obviously the court
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that decides a case and the year in
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which it was decided can be very
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important your caption will give that to
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you of course your caption does
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something else for you as well it's sort
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of an indexing tool for you you're going
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to be writing many case briefs over the
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course of the semester and obviously the
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caption tells you which case this
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particular brief is about okay the next
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part is going to be a procedural history
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or we might say the posture of the case
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that is where is this case bin before it
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got to the appellate court whose opinion
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you're reading maybe just a trial court
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maybe a trial court and an intermediate
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level appellate court and then finally
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perhaps the Supreme Court of a state or
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as some states use different names like
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Court of Appeals you need to look at the
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abbreviation in the caption and find out
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what court decided that case that's the
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only tricky thing to do with the caption
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okay what's the next part of the of your
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case brief well as dean Epps told you in
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her video on reading cases right you're
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going to read a case a lot of times more
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than once for sure more than twice most
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of the time because a lot is going on
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this portion of your brief
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the contact is going to have the parties
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their objectives and the material facts
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let's go back and use Gideon again just
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illustrate this who are the parties well
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mr. Gideon and the state of Florida what
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was his objective in this litigation
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that reached the United States Supreme
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Court his objective was to get a new
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trial but this time with a
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court-appointed attorney
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what were the material facts well one
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material fact was that Gideon was a
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accused of a felony another material
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fact was that he could not afford a
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lawyer on his own and the third
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important fact was that he requested a
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court to appoint him a lawyer and the
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courts in Florida denied him denied that
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request those are the key facts upon
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which the opinion will turn as Dean Epps
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also told you in her video you're going
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to read the case a second time a third
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time maybe even more than that for
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perhaps the hardest part for you to
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handle and that is the legal content
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what are the issues or issues in the
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case what were the theories the
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arguments that were put forward by the
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parties for their position what did the
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court eventually hold and what was its
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disposition of the matter right that's
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the legal content a very very important
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part of your case brief again just to
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illustrate using Gideon what was the
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issue the issue was does the United
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States Constitution require a state to
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appoint a lawyer for indigent who is
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charged with a very serious crime that's
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the legal issue what were the legal
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theories well the legal theories dealt
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with the Due Process Clause of the
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Fourteenth Amendment I'm not going to go
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into the details what was the courts
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holding the United States Supreme Court
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held that yes indeed that Due Process
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Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
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requires a state to appoint counsel for
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one who cannot afford a lawyer and if
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that person is charged with a serious
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crime what was the disposition of
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the case what actually did the Supreme
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Court do it reversed the decision of the
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Florida Supreme Court it remanded the
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matter back to the Supreme Court to act
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in accordance with its decision that's
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the legal content okay the next part of
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your case brief is the most important
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and that is the courts reasoning its
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rationale for reaching that holding and
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that disposition for example in Gideon
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this is where you would focus in on
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justice blacks majority opinion the
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reasons he gave for his conclusions and
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often you're going to have to compare
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the reasoning of the majority opinion
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with that of a dissenting opinion
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finally and this is your last section
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the evaluation and synthesis portion of
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of your case brief very important to
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your learning what you're going to think
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about first is what do I think about
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these opinions that I've just just
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analyzed and I put into my into my brief
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are they persuasive to me are they sound
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do I do I think the stronger point is
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made by the dissent or by the majority
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you're going to assess that right and
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then you're going to write it down in
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your case brief you're also going to
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think about how does this case add to my
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understanding add to my knowledge what
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does it add to the cases that preceded
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it to our prior class discussions that's
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your synthesis section again you're
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going to go to that couch you're going
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to think about it you're going to come
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back and you're going to record it so
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that you have captured your thoughts in
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this structured set of notes that we
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call a case brief okay by way of review
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here is the whole template right we have
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the caption we have the procedural
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history right we have the the context
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the parties their objectives the
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material facts we've got the legal
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content the issue or issues the legal
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arguments and theories right we have the
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holding the disposition and then we get
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to the courts reasoning and finally
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your evaluation your evaluation of those
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opinions that you've just considered and
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your synthesis your your take away from
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what this case adds to your knowledge
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this is not going to be easy for you at
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first I know the first case we have you
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read in litigation basics is a very
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short little case but it's going to take
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you a while to figure out exactly what's
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going on and then we'll be spending some
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time on it in the litigation basic class
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going over it going over that very very
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short case but I assure you with
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practice and you're going to get a lot
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of practice doing case briefs with
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practice you're going to get better at
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reading cases you're going to get better
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at briefing cases right you eventually
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probably aren't going to necessarily
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need that whole template you're going to
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find ways to shortcut to make to make
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things easier to do without losing
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anything in the quality of your analysis
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or in in the notes that you have for
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later on I might also suggest that you
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take a look at the short document that
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Professor Shellenberger and I've
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prepared
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it's called thoughts on reading and
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briefing cases it's got a bit more
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detail than I offered in this video but
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I suggest you take a look at that before
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orientation starts as well see you
