1.10: Briefing Cases

What is a Case Brief?

In essence, a case brief is a summary of the key aspects of a judicial in a particular case. Briefing a case allows you to take the information you learned when you read the case and use your own words to explain what happened and why the court decided what it did. But as we will see below, although a case brief is a summary, it requires active engagement with the material and its structure is tailored for comprehension.

Keep in mind what you learned in the Reading Cases section. Reading a case and briefing a case are two actions that are intertwined and yet separate. Below, we will examine a case brief's contents, why it is important, and how to prepare each section.

The Value of Briefing Cases

Case briefing is a good way to “divide and conquer” a case to discover its true meaning and applicability. Instead of trying to figure this out after reading through a 50-page decision, case briefing requires you to look at each component of the decision separately. The result is a detailed "roadmap" of the legal analysis used by the court to answer the legal questions involved in the case before it. Understanding the court’s analytical process is an important part of understanding the legal significance of the decision.

Anatomy of a Case Brief

As you read a case, you will notice quite a few similarities between the sections of a case brief and the parts of a court decision. Although the definitions are similar, what you do with the information is slightly different.

The case briefing structure we will use in this class has 8 sections:

1. Complete citation of the case being briefed
2. Procedural history
3. Applicable statutes
4. Issues
5. Holdings
6. Facts
7. Reasoning
8. Disposition

Following is a brief (did you get the pun?) description of each section.

Case Name and Citation

The complete and proper name and citation for the case goes at the top of your brief. It will include the name of the case (italicized), followed by a citation of all the reporters in which the case is found.^[1] This section matters because:

1. The name the parties and is how you, your professor, and others will refer to this case.
2. The citation identifies who to locate the case (much like a book's "ISBN" and a product's barcode).  

Procedural History

The procedural history explains what happened in the lower court(s) and how it reached the case reached this court. It should include only facts regarding court actions, not  the substantive facts of the case (i.e., the "story": the circumstances surrounding the dispute). The substantive facts are address in the Facts section below. 

The section who is appealing and why. It explains what the lower court(s) did and why. Again, this section is not about the story of why the case got into the court system in the first place.

Facts

This is the place to summary the substantive facts: This is the story of the case. All court decisions are based on a specific and unique set of facts. Although appellate courts do not decide disputes of facts (that is for the trial courts), the facts provide a context for the legal questions. The facts tell us what happened to the persons involved in the appeal – the who, what, when, where, why, and how that are the basis of the parties’ legal dispute. Like the applicable legal rule(s), the facts are usually quite easy to find because courts often have a “facts” section in the decision. 

Note

It is best to wait until you complete the other parts of the brief before finalizing this section. Some facts in a court's explanation of the facts provide context, but courts don't necessarily rely on all of them in their analysis and reasoning. When writing this section last in your final draft, you will have a better understanding of which facts paint the general picture and which facts are both legally relevant and legally significant to the court.

Applicable Legal Rule(s)

This section tells us which statute(s) if any, the court interpreted or applied in its decision. Usually, it is quite easy to determine which statute(s) to include in this section, because the court tells you in its decision. If the statute is well-written, directly quote it using quotation marks. Include only the words of the statute, and not a statement of how the court interpreted or applied it.

This section is important because it is the reason you are reading the case.

Issue(s)

This section explains the legal questions the court is answering in its decision. What is the legal dispute about? The issue is a combination of the legal standard the court is interpreting and applying (for example, statutory language or other legal standard or precedent) and the facts of the case that are legally relevant facts that are significant (i.e., the facts or circumstances to which the statutory language or other legal standard or precedent is being applied).

The best way to write it is as a question.

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Does using a drug-sniffing dog on a homeowner's porch to investigate the contents of the home constitute a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment?

Holding(s)

In this simplified case briefing structure, the holdings are the direct answer to the questions raised in the issues. No additional explanation is provided. All you need to do is answer the question (“yes” or “no”) and then copy and paste your Issue question, revising the grammar and punctuation of your issue question into a statement, using the same words in roughly the same order.

Reasoning

This is the longest and most important section of the case brief. While the issue and holding sections tell you what the law is, the reasoning section tells you why the law is what it is. How did the court interpret and apply the legal standard(s) to the facts? What tools (dictionaries, other case law, etc.) did the court use to help it interpret and apply those legal standards? How did the court explain or justify the end result? This section combines the applicable statutes, issues, facts, and holdings into a detailed discussion of the court’s legal and factual analysis.

Disposition

This section describes the procedural “ending” or resolution of the case. It tells us what the court whose decision we are reading did with the case. Did the court affirm or reverse what happened procedurally in the lower court? In addition to stating whether the reviewing court affirmed or reversed the lower court, it also briefly explains the impact on the parties (for example, the claim was dismissed, or the claim was reinstated). Like the Procedural History section, this section will include very little, if any, of the “story” or “substantive” facts of the case; only procedure is included.

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Supplementary Case Briefing Resources

• Nancy Schultz & Louis J. Sirico, Legal Writing and Other Lawyering Skills 23-35 (3d ed. 1998).
• John C. Dernbach et. al., Practical Guide to Legal Writing and Legal Methods 23-41 (4th ed. 2010).
• Gertrude Block, Effective Legal Writing 1-12 (5th ed. 1999).
• Deborah A. Schmedemann & Christina L. Kunz, Synthesis: Legal Reading, Reasoning, and Communication 38-44 (5th ed. 2017). 

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Notes

1. In Wisconsin, this would always include the Wisconsin Reports (Wis. or Wis. 2d) and the Northwestern Reporter (N.W. or N.W.2d). Depending on when the case was decided, you’d also have either a public domain citation or a date parenthetical. ↩