Case Brief Template

An approach for lawyers

When working as a lawyer, you will often find yourself juggling several court cases in addition to all the other duties you have, especially if you are the owner of the law firm. In managing said cases, you will need to handle paperwork, conduct extensive research and investigation, and take some very important decisions based on those documents.
To grasp the essential details of their cases quickly and effectively, lawyers create Case Briefs.

This article aims to provide a quick explanation of what they are, a guide to properly creating them, and a template for example.

What is a Case Brief? 🔬

A case brief is a written summary of a court case. They are used to highlight the case’s key elements, such as rulings, legal principles that were involved, and the decisions taken.
Its use allows lawyers to have a reference point during legal research.

How do I prepare a Case Brief? 📝

Before going head-on into writing a Case Brief, you need to read your case carefully and thoroughly, distilling the case’s most important parts and analyzing them properly in order to restate them in your own words.

By describing the case accurately, you should be able to find its key aspects and determine its principles, rulings, concepts, facts involved in the decision taken, and the proper legal terminology and procedures.
Then you can restate them in your own words, seamlessly.

Steps to Briefing a Case🔍

One small piece of advice before attempting to start your Brief Case: Try to read your cases twice. One time to get the bigger picture without much attention to all the underlying details. Comprehend the basics.
The second time you dig into the details, leave the actual, concrete picture to understand the abstract, giving yourself the time to think about (and judge and challenge) the court’s decision or the judge’s analysis.
Then you should be ready to brief it properly.

According to Ann M. Burkhart and Robert A. Stein in their book “How to Study Law and Take Law Exams” (excerpt taken from here), these are the basic steps for a Case Brief:

1. Select a useful case brief format: Start by using a format that is useful for your class and exam preparations.
2. Use the right caption when naming the brief: A brief needs to begin with the case name, the court that decided it, the year it was decided, and the page on which it appears in the casebook.
3. Identify the case facts: State the facts of the case in your brief, since legal principles are defined by the situations in which they occur. Include only legally relevant facts — the ones that are relevant to the court’s consideration. You will have to review the case thoroughly before briefing it; remember that it must be accurate and done properly.
4. Outline the procedural story: The next step should be a statement of facts that outlines the case’s origin and the procedural story, focusing on the plaintiff’s legal action and the court’s decision in a trial or appellate case.
5. State the issues in question: With the factual statement and the procedural story done, you are now ready to describe the opinion you are briefing. You have to break down the case here and analyze its key components, outlining the factual and legal questions that the court had to decide.
6. State the holding in your own words: Answer each issue question separately. You will need to state the answers in a word or two, such as “yes” or “no”, citing the legal principle the court based their decision on.
7. Describe the court’s rationale for each holding: At this point, you should be ready to define the court’s rationale for each holding in the case brief, as understanding their reasoning is crucial for analyzing and applying it to other situations, such as exam situations.
8. Explain the final disposition: It is essential for you to answer these basic questions in order to describe the case’s final disposition: Did the court decide in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant? If it is an appellate court decision, did the court affirm the lower court’s decision, reverse it in whole or in part, or remand the case for additional proceedings? What remedy, if any, did the court grant?
9. Include other opinions: If they provide a useful or interesting analysis of the case, you can include concurring or dissenting opinions in your brief. This will allow you to see the case in a different light, contributing to your posterior analysis.

How can I make/design/create a Case Brief? 💡

All the information stated above sounds insightful enough, but for the more factual and anxious ones, the actual process of deciding what they need to put and where in the Case Brief might be more urgent.

LSD.Law gives two examples of Case Brief Templates to guide you in creating one:

Standard parts:
- Name of case (Write the name of the case at the top of your document)
- Parties (Who are the plaintiff and the defendant?)
- Procedures (Is the case being heard in state or federal court? At which stage is the case when the issue arises?)
- Issue (What is the legal issue that the case is addressing?)
- Facts (Try to identify, and then summarize the legally fundamental case’s facts).
- Rule (What is the rule of law that the court applied?)
- Analysis/Application (What is the court’s reasoning?, How did they apply the rule to the facts?)
- Holding (What did the court decide?)
- Judgment (Did the court grant or deny a motion? Affirm or reverse a lower court?)

Optional parts:
- Policy (Did the court provide any public policy reasons for its adoption of a new rule or its application of an old rule in case of a novel situation?)
- Dicta (Did the court provide an extended discussion of an issue that is not necessary to reach the holding (a “dicta”)?)
- Dissent (Does the casebook include a dissenting option?)

Well, if you are more of a visual-learning person, JD Advising provides an example of how all of the above should look with your first Case Brief Template:

Another way of structuring your Case Brief, useful for when you need to do a quicker study of it for further references:

• Title — Titles indicate parties involved in a case, with first names representing the initiating party. Citations serve as references for finding cases in relevant books or reporters, making them easier to track and study.
• Case’s factors — Summary of case facts, legal points, parties involved, relevant occurrences, and lower court rulings, establishing context for further understanding the court’s published opinion.
• Issues — Legal issues in a case, often stated as a question, should be phrased clearly, focusing on the case’s nature, lower court opinions, or appeal parties. Identifying these issues is crucial for understanding the legal implications. Utilizing LSD+ Case Briefs can guide readers.
• Decisions/Holdings — Court’s response to the legal questions presented, can vary from simple affirmatives to complex interpretations, resulting in narrow procedural or substantive decisions.
• Reasoning/Rationale — Judges’ decision reasoning is crucial for understanding legal principles and rationale, revealing court consideration of relevant facts and rules. Professors will typically assign specific case book pages for specific opinions, which you should focus on.
• Separate Opinions — Analyze both concurring and dissenting opinions in assigned readings to identify agreement or disagreement, and familiarize yourself with judges’ typical stances for future cases that involve similar issues.
• Analysis — The evaluation of a case’s significance involves evaluating its significance, relationship to other cases, and place in history. It helps structure an outline for future exams and determines its impact on the court, officials, and decision-making processes, in addition to its effects on litigants, government, and society.

Keep in mind that no template is perfect; what is important is how this will cut down on the time it takes to read the Case Brief, as it should be concise and well-organized. Remember that its sole purpose is to serve lawyers as reference points and affirmations for their case handling.

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