10/9/19

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Legal English
October 9, 2019

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Read and follow homework directions carefully – discussion

board assignments are to be completed in the Canvas discussion
board in English, not on Facebook etc…
• Due dates fixed in Canvas – be mindful of general schedule
• Assignments due by Monday midnight unless group activity with
interim due dates
• Rules of the House Part 3: Deadline extended (October14)
• Research Lunch
• Come to lunch with me today to hear more about participating in
the research project!

HOMEWORK FOR NEXT WEEK

• No new chapter reading

• Rules of the House Part 3
• Listening Activity 3
• Case briefing practice #2

1
 10/9/19

HOW TO BRIEF A C ASE

BRIEFING A CASE

• A way of reading a case and organizing your notes

• Useful in Socratic seminars – question/response
classroom
• Creates a type of study aid for exams
• Many different approaches - we will teach you one

KEEP IN MIND…

• We will teach you how to use a template, but not all

cases follow the same pattern
• Some cases are quite old and use old terminology and
archaic vocabulary
• Best to read cases twice and look for general
benchmarks

2
 10/9/19

Case Name

• Name and case citation information

Facts

• How did this case get into court? What is the

CASE BRIEF court focusing on?
BENCHMARKS
Procedural History
• History of how the case moved through the
system before getting to the court writing the
opinion you are reading (i.e. what happened
between the time the case was filed and the
appeal was filed.)

Issues

• Procedural: Were the rules of legal

procedure and process followed in this case?
• Substantive: What law applies here? How
does it apply?

CASE BRIEF Holding (and Judgement)

BENCHMARKS
• What did the court decide? What happens
next to the case?

Rule(s) of Law

• Any statutes or previous case law rules that

the court uses in making a decision

3
 10/9/19

Court’s Reasoning

• Why did the court decide the way it did –

how did they apply the law?
Additional Case Opinions (if
any)
CASE BRIEF • Concurring (agreeing with end result but not
BENCHMARKS reasons for the decision)
• Dissenting (disagreeing with the reasoning
and result)

Comments/Questions

• This is a space for you to write your thoughts

and any class discussion notes

NAME/CITATION

EXAMPLE: Rogers v. Beazley, 606 F. Supp. 2d 101 (S.D. Ohio 2006).

• Rogers v. Beazley: The name of the case (the parties)

• 606 F. Supp. 2d 101: The reader can find the case at Volume 606 of the Federal
Supplement reporter, Second Series, beginning on page 101. (it would also be available on
the web by searching this citation.)
• (S.D. Ohio): The court is the United States District Court for the Southern District of
Ohio.
• (2006): The case was decided in 2006.

FACTS

• Why the case was filed in the first place

• What happened before outside court
room before there was a legal dispute in
court
• May be contained in their own “Facts”
section or sprinkled throughout
• Need to distinguish between
significant/legally relevant facts and
irrelevant facts
• The issue will help you determine which
facts are relevant

4
 10/9/19

PROCEDURAL
HISTORY

What happened during the litigation

process once the case was filed in court
Facts and procedural history go together
in some way
Also known as “history of the case” or
“procedural posture”
Look for a brief narrative offered by the
court regarding why they are hearing the
case

ISSUE

• Question (or questions) presented for the court to solve, or rule on, based on
the laws that are in place and/or any prior court decisions interpreting those
laws
• Can be more than one issue
• Usually “procedural” or “substantive”
• Procedural issues ask whether the correct process was used for this case in
litigation
• Substantive issues ask questions about laws and how they apply to the facts
in question/particular situations

Procedural
• Were the rules of litigation followed correctly?
• How the case came to be in front of them (maybe
an incorrect jury instruction was given below;
maybe evidence was considered that shouldn’t
PROCEDURAL have been)?
VS. Substantive
SUBSTANTIVE
• What does this law mean in this context?
• Does a certain law or statute apply to the
situation at hand (i.e. a farmer is challenging a
residential zoning regulation that he says does not
apply to his farming land)?

5
 10/9/19

Should answer the issue presented

with some sort of definitive
decision on the facts of the case.

HOLDING

Look for
“We find “For these
“Thus we hold accordingly reasons we
that…”
that…” conclude that…”

What the court orders to happen next

in a case either by its own action or by
ordering another person or court to
act.

JUDGEMENT

Judgement outcomes generally are:

Reversed Remanded “In Part”
Affirmed (denying the (sent back for • Decision can
(upheld) earlier outcome re-ruling/further be reversed in
entirely) proceedings) part

Generally statutes (laws) or

previous case law rules that
the court uses in making a
decision in the current case

RULES OF LAW

Look for:

Past case analyses (i.e.

Code notations (i.e. “The appellate court References to the
“Indiana Revised Code used our reasoning in United States
31-42-13-2 (b) reads as Constitution (i.e. “Article
Allen v. Mitchell, which
follows….; stated that …”) III clearly states that…

6
 10/9/19

W hy the court decided the way it did, and

how the law applies (or doesn’t apply) in
this case

Look for explanations from the court about

REASONING OF why they decided what they decided – what
THE COURT is their rationale?

If it is unclear, look at the holding that the

court reaches and then go back through the
case and look for the justifications the
court makes in reaching that holding

CONCURRING & DISSENTING OPINIONS

• Concurring: Agreeing with end result for different reasons

• Dissenting: Disagreeing with the reasoning and result)
• Different justices reason outcomes in different ways and for
separate reasons
• Sometimes serve as a basis for later interpretations of the law/issue
being considered

STATE V. WORLEY

Partner Case Briefing Exercise

7
 10/9/19

OVERVIEW OF EXERCISE

• We are going to brief a criminal case involving a commission of a

crime against the law.
• The defendant is attempting to raise a defense of “necessity” to
get out of being liable for a crime he has been charged with
committing.
• Generally, the necessity defense permits a person to act in a
criminal manner when an emergency situation, not of the
person's own creation, compels the person to act in a criminal
manner to avoid greater harm from occurring.

INSTRUCTIONS

Read the case one time through

and make notes of any unknown
vocabulary
Poison ivy = plant in North America
that causes your skin to itch and turn
red if you touch the leaves
Calamine lotion = cheap, over-the-
counter lotion used to treat mild cases
of poison ivy
Read the case a second time and
enter your ideas into the
template
Review your work with a partner