Your brief should be approximately 2 pages in length,single spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1″ margins. You should put your name and student number at the top of the paper. A title page is not needed. The case is attached to this order so please review it.
Your brief must be structured with following headings in bold face as follows:
CASE CITATION: This is done for you above in proper Bluebook format.
PARTIES: Who are the Defendants? Plaintiffs? Appellants? Appellees?
FACTS: Who did what to whom? Include all facts the
court considered significant. Summarize in your own words. DO NOT cut
and paste from the opinion. Don’t forget in-text citations.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY: Who is asking the court to do what? How did the case procedurally get before this court?
ISSUE: What question did the court have to answer
in order to make their decision? Your issue(s) should be stated in the
form of a question.
HOLDING: Which way did the court answer the
questions posed in the issue? What did they decide in a one sentence
rule of law that answers the issue question?
REASONING: Why did the court decide the case the
way it did? What legal standard did they use or establish? What prior
cases did the Court rely upon and why?
DECISION: This section gives the Judgment rendered
by the court. Describe the final disposition of the case. Did the court
affirm the lower court’s decision, reverse it, and/or remand it for
additional proceedings?
COMMENTS: Is there anything else that should be
mentioned about this case? Is it a “landmark” case? Was the court
“divided”? Were there any weaknesses/discrepancies in the court’s
opinions? What were your personal thoughts on the case?
Legal case names should be done in standard “Bluebook” format. Example: York v. Smith,
65 U.S. 294 (1995). For more information on case brief format see “How
to Brief a Case” below. There is also a model case brief in the case
attached that you may review. I want the brief to be in your own words,
so do NOT include extremely long quotes from the opinion itself. Your
brief should be approximately 2 pages in length. The majority of the
citations will be inside the Reasoning section. Case briefs are used to
highlight the key information contained within a case for use within
the legal community as court cases can be quite lengthy.
When writing case briefs, all information must be properly cited.
Make sure you are not JUST copying and pasting from your source. Most
of the material should be paraphrased; quotations should make up no more
than 10% of the brief. HOWEVER, just because you are paraphrasing
does not mean you do not need CITATIONS!!! Your case brief should have a
citation after almost every sentence, even when you do not have a
quotation.
Note: since the purpose to is highlight and summarize key
information, merely copying and pasting from the case does not
accomplish this goal. You must summarize the facts in your own words,
using quotations sparingly.
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