How to Write a Case Brief

TV series like Boston Legal and books like The Appeal have got us a little bit acquainted with the legal jargon and how the courtroom works. One of the oft used words in the bandwagon of legal jargon is the case brief. As self-explanatory the term is, a case brief refers to a legal document a lawyer, government or any advocacy organization submits to the court. The purpose is to put across to the court the legal and policy arguments for supporting a legal position. Law students and paralegals and clerks need to know about legal case briefs and how are they written. Here is more on writing case briefs.

How to Write a Legal Case Brief

There are several steps involved in writing a case brief. For starters, a court case brief begins with the name or title of the case, like XYZ V. ABC, followed by the court citation. Then come the actual steps for writing a case brief.

Step 1 - Facts
Begin with pointing out and emphasizing the high points and defining facts of the case. To be specific, those which will have a surefire impact on the result of the case. The objective is to tell the case story sans missing any vital points, while chucking away garbage or extraneous facts.

Step 2 - Record, What Passed
In legal terminology, this is termed as procedural history. This means that the person making the brief, has to record or make a detailed note of what happened procedurally in the case, till the point the brief is being written. This includes The dates of case filings, motions of summary judgment, court rulings, trials, and verdicts or judgments have to be mentioned here.

Step 3 - Main Issue
Come up with the main issue or issues in the case, in a question-answer form. But it will be just a yes/no, as that will help you present the holding in the next section of the brief.

Step 4 - Holding
Holding refers to a direct response to a question formulated by you while dealing with the main issue. After the direct response, the holding will be elaborated with the reason of the direct response.

Step 5 - Law Rules
The rule of law aspect in the briefing, points out the principle of law on which the judge or justice will be determining the resolution of the case.

Step 6 - Reasoning and Justification
This is yet again a very important feature of case briefs. This section is a description of why the court ruled the way it did. This is crucial as it primarily binds all the parts of the case together. This section traces the reasoning of the court step by step.

Step 7 - Concurrence or Dissent
In this last section, you have to point out a concurring or dissenting judge's basic point of contention. That means, whether the judge's decision was accepted and agreed upon, or it was not accepted.

This was a basic overview of writing case briefs. Examples for better understanding of how it actually is, can be found on the Internet at the click of your mouse or in law books for law students. Before you check out the samples, talk to the professors or senior lawyers whom you might even be assisting. That will be of great help.

At the end, the best bet if you want to know how to write a good case brief is to read the case thoroughly, once. You should know the facts of the case in and out. That is it! All the best!