NOTE: Many students read cases incorrectly because they do not see the problems in terms of applicable law or case law than for any other reason. There is no substitute for taking the time to carefully formulate the questions so that they actually incorporate the most important provisions of the law in terms that can be answered accurately. It may also be useful to point out problems, such as “procedural issues”, “substantive issues”, “legal issues”, etc. Also keep in mind that the same case can be used by instructors for different purposes, so part of the challenge of the information session is to identify the problems in the case that are at the heart of the topic discussed in class. And remember that legal jargon is not always technical language. Most non-lawyers don`t use words like “mentioned above” or “all aspects of” or “anyway.” Many of the legal research and writing guides include a discussion of student letters, appeal briefs, and other types of legal notes used by practicing lawyers. Examples and more information can be found in the library books listed below: An appeal brief is a written legal argument submitted to an appellate court. Its purpose is to persuade the higher court to confirm or annul the decision of the court of first instance. Briefs of this type are therefore designed to present the issues of the case only from a one-page perspective. While each briefing should be tailored to your client`s case, there`s no need to reinvent the wheel if you don`t have to.
It is relatively common for lawyers to reuse certain sentences or terms (or even entire sections) of pleadings when the legal issues are the same in all cases. The danger, of course, is to quote authorities who were once good laws but are no longer good laws. Even if you`ve managed to reuse a particular short section over and over again, it`s still a good idea to run your letter in the writing assistant before filing it via West Check. This tool uses KeyCite directly in your word processing application to quickly determine if the law you are citing is still good. The name of the party bringing the lawsuit, at each level of the judicial ladder, always appears first in legal documents. For example, Arlo Tatum and others sued the Federal District Court for an injunction against Defense Minister Melvin Laird and others to prevent the military from spying on them. Tatum and his friends became plaintiffs and the case later became known as Tatum v. Laird. The Tatum group lost in District Court and appealed to the Court of Appeal, where they were described as appellants, and the defendants became the appellants. The case was therefore still known in Tatum v. Laird.
When you first read a case, read for history and for a basic understanding of the dispute, issues, reasoning, and decision. When you hit these elements (or what you think are these elements), mark the margins. Their markers can be as simple as “facts” (with a square bracket indicating the relevant part of the paragraph). When you discover a problem, you can simply mark “problem” or provide a summary in your own words instead. When a case sparks an idea – write that idea in the margins too – you never know when a seemingly irrelevant idea might become something more. Appeals from both sides can be very valuable to anyone assessing the legal issues raised in a case. Unfortunately, they are rarely published. The U.S.
Supreme Court is the only court for which pleadings are regularly available in published form. The Landmark Briefs series (REF. LAW KF 101.9. K8) contains the full text of the pleadings relating to some of the many cases heard by that court. In addition, summaries of pleadings filed on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant for all reported cases are included in the reports of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ed., 2nd series (REF. GESETZ KF 101. A42). Ask law students and lawyers in the lexTalk legal community for advice When Tatum and his appellate colleagues won in the Court of Appeal, Laird and his appellate colleagues decided to seek review by the Supreme Court. They successfully applied for a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court, which ordered the Court of Appeal to send the minutes of the case (minutes of the Court of First Instance, application documents and various legal documents) to the Supreme Court. Each standard legal dissertation contains a few basic elements: A good student letter contains a summary of the relevant facts and legal points raised in the case.
It will show the nature of the dispute, who sued whom, based on what incidents and what happened in the lower courts. The title of the case indicates who is against whom. The name of the person who brought an action in that particular court is always displayed first. Since losers often appeal to a higher court, this can become confusing. The first section of this guide will show you how to identify players without a scorecard. People usually don`t care about case names or legal terminology. You are interested in how what you say affects them. There is often confusion about the term “legal pleading.” There are at least two different meanings in which the term is used. The quotation indicates how the case reporter can be found in the corresponding case reporter. If you only know the title of the case, you can find the citation via the case document on this court via Google Scholar or one of the electronic legal databases subscribed to by the library (Westlaw or LEXIS-NEXIS).
The problem is that most legal case summaries are neither good nor effective. They lack relevance and are rarely clicked, opened or read. “You should think of three things when buying a home,” suggests, “Buyers should think of three things every time they buy a home.”
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