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How to Write a Case Brief

Posted by Matt Sellers on August 15 (15) comments

First and foremost, a case brief is a study aid. It is written by the student and for his own benefit. Case briefing is a way of dissecting and framing a legal opinion so that the student can better understand the opinion and better convey information about that case both in class and on the final exam. In this blog posting, we’ll examine the historical background of case briefing and we’ll seek to answer two questions: what is a case brief and how do you write a case brief?

What is a case brief?

Put simply, a case brief is a summary of a legal opinion. The term case brief is often confusing to laypeople because the ordinary meaning of the word brief refers to a written argument submitted to a court (such as an “appellate brief”). However, a case brief is not an argument, nor submitted to a court. It is a study tool used by law students to prepare for class and final exams. A case brief might also be referred to as a “case summary,” which better encapsulates the meaning and avoids the ambiguity of the term “case brief.”

The History and Purpose of Case Briefing

In order to fully understand case briefing, it is important to understand the historical background of the method and the rationale for its use as a pedagogical tool in U.S. law schools.

It will probably come as a surprise to most law students that modern law schools did not appear in the United States until the late nineteenth century. Before the advent of a school dedicated to the study of law, attorneys were admitted to the bar through apprenticeships and independent study. In fact, the American Bar Association was not formed until 1878. Hence, for the first one hundred years of the United States’ life as a nation, there were essentially no uniform standards for admission to the bar and no uniform curriculum for legal study.

In the 1870s, Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell of Harvard Law School created the first-year law school curriculum as we know it today, which consists of contracts, property, torts, civil procedure and criminal law. In 1871, Langdell published the first ever casebook: A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts. With References and Citations. Prepared for Use as a Text-book in Harvard Law School. And why did Langdell invent the “casebook”? Langdell answers this question in the Preface:

It seemed to me . . . possible to take such a branch of the law as Contracts, for example, and, without exceeding comparatively moderate limits, to select, classify, and arrange all the cases which had contributed in any important degree to the growth, development, or establishment of any of its essential doctrines; and that such a work could not fail to be of material service to all who desire to study that branch of law systematically and in its original sources.

Before Langdell’s casebook, law professors would post a list of all the cases to be read and students were required to go to the library, copy the cases, and study them. With the publication of Langdell’s casebook on contract law, the casebook method was born, saving students the hassle of back-and-forth trips to the library and giving all students equal access to the cases assigned for class. The casebook method is closely related to the Socratic Method, which is another pedagogical tool used in contemporary legal education. In its truest form, the Socratic Method refers to a method of teaching whereby the teacher leads the student to higher truths through a line of questioning. However, in the context of law school, the Socratic Method is in actuality a type of quizzing where students are picked on at random and asked questions to test their knowledge of the assigned cases. The casebook method creates the foundation upon which the Socratic Method is allowed to proceed; that is, professors assign cases for students to read in the casebook (i.e. the casebook method) and then test students’ knowledge of those cases in a classroom environment (i.e. the Socratic Method).

Why do law students write case briefs?

Primarily, case briefing is a way for students to prepare for class. A case brief is structured in a way that lends itself to the types of questions professors ask as part of the Socratic Method. For example, a case brief typically has five sections: the facts of the case, the legal issue, the legal principle applied in the case, the holding and reasoning of the majority, and a summary of any concurrences and dissents. By parsing out this information in a legal opinion, you effectively prepare yourself for most (if not all) questions a law professor might ask you about a case.

How do you write a case brief?

A case brief can be formatted in many different ways, and you should choose the format with which you are most comfortable. However, nearly every case brief includes, at a minimum, the following information: the facts of the case; the legal issue; the legal principle applied in the case; the holding and reasoning of the majority; and a summary of any concurrences and dissents.

Let’s discuss each section in turn. (We’ll use the Quimbee case brief format for ease of discussion. But please keep in mind that other formats exist and are perfectly acceptable.)

1. Facts. The facts section is deceivingly difficult to write. Many legal opinions clearly outline the facts of the case, and when briefing the case, you might be tempted to copy the court’s rendition of the facts verbatim into your case brief. When writing a case brief, never parrot the court’s language word-for-word; instead, you should always paraphrase the court’s language into plain English. Be mindful of the purpose of a case brief, which is to gain a clearer understanding of the case.

Substantively, the facts section should include the following information (if obtainable in the casebook opinion):

1. The cause of action (e.g. a suit for replevin, breach of contract, and so forth);

2. An identification of the plaintiff and defendant in the case by party name;

3. The operative facts of the case that led to the dispute between the parties;

4. The trial/district court/jury’s holding;

5. The appellate court’s holding.

Structurally, the Facts section should proceed as follows: (1) begin with the operative facts of the case; (2) followed by the cause of action arising out of the facts; and (3) end with the procedural history of the case (i.e. the lower court decisions).

As an aside, some case brief formats treat the procedural history of the case as a separate section. At Quimbee, we include the procedural history in the facts section. Our rationale is that procedural history is rarely tested by professors in class and thus creating a “procedural history” section in a case brief is probably overkill.

Always identify the plaintiff and defendant in the case. Never simply refer to the parties as “plaintiff” and “defendant” without indicating which party is the plaintiff and which is the defendant.

2. Rule of Law. The rule of law is the legal principle or black letter law upon which the court rested its decision in the case. A single legal opinion may contain numerous rules of law or legal principles that impacted the court’s final decision. However, for case briefing purposes, your task is to determine the rule of law germane to the discussion of the case in the casebook and to formulate that rule into one, easy-to-digest sentence. The Rule of Law should be written only after reading the opinion in its entirety.

The rule of law should never be fact-specific. It should answer the dispositive legal question being posed in the case. Put differently, the rule of law should be the legal issue in the case phrased as a statement.

3. Issue. In the facts section, you described the cause of action, the factual circumstances leading to that cause of action, and the procedural history of the case. The issue section is the next logical step. Moreover, remember that the issue and rule of law sections should mirror one another.

You should identify the legal issue being emphasized in the casebook. For example, if a case in a contracts casebook appears in a chapter on promissory estoppel, then your issue section should also relate to promissory estoppel. Moreover, your issue must not be fact-specific. This means that the issue section should not contain the factual details of the case. Similarly, the issue should be a legal question, not a procedural one. Hence, the following rendering of the issue section is incorrect: “Whether the trial court erred in granting summary judgment for the plaintiff.” Note that the foregoing issue does not bear on anything substantive; nor does it bear on the legal question at issue in the case. Finally, your issue section should be phrased as a question that facilitates a “yes” or “no” answer. Never create an issue that invites an ambiguous answer.

4. Holding and Reasoning. Now that you have identified the facts and salient legal issues in the case, you are ready to explain how the court decided the case. The holding and reasoning section should be structured in a manner consistent with the CREAC method. Legal frameworks, tests, and principles should be clearly articulated and applied to the facts of the case. You should always explain the rationale behind the legal principles being applied in the case. In fact, perhaps the most common mistake case briefers make in the holding and reasoning section is to omit explanation of the rule (i.e. the “E” in CREAC). The conclusion and procedural disposition of the case should be stated at the end.

Substantively, the holding and reasoning section should contain the following information (if obtainable in the casebook):

1. The relevant legal principles and rules used to decide the case;

2. The application of those principles to the facts of the case;

3. The court’s conclusion;

4. The procedural disposition (i.e. reversed and remanded, affirmed, etc.)

You should include the names of any seminal cases or important statutes used by the majority in its opinion.

5. Concurrences and Dissents. All concurrences and dissents in the casebook should be covered in your case brief. Concurrences and dissents in casebook opinions are often short in length and so should be your summary of that material. Be sure to answer specifically the question of why a judge decided to write separately.