Project 1

Your first project will be to write a student case brief. The instructions for this are included
below.

“HOW TO GET FROM THE OPINION TO THE BRIEF

First, remember that the brief is just a tool to help you understand the significance of a case by
forcing you to identify and describe its most important parts.

Next, read the case that you intend to brief at least once (and preferably twice or three times),
jotting down some notes in the margins. After you have a good overall sense of the case, begin to
draft your brief. Below are some guidelines to help you decide what to include and what to leave
out in each section of a brief.

Name: You can usually copy the name and citation information from the casebook. In the
Worley brief, “220 S.E.2d 242” means that a lawyer could find this case in a law library in
volume 220 of the second series of a set of books called the Southeastern Reporter at page 242.
Similarly, “265 S.C. 551” means that a lawyer could also find this case in volume 265 of a series
of books called the South Carolina Reports at page 551. “(1975)” means that the case was
decided by the highest court in South Carolina in 1975.

Facts: It is not always easy to decide what to leave out of the fact section. You should include
only facts that are relevant to the issue being decided. It may help to ask yourself, “Which facts
really gave rise to the issue in the case?” “Which facts really affected the outcome?” In Worley,
the most relevant facts are that the defendant escaped from prison and failed to surrender himself
to authorities for two years after receiving medical treatment. The opinion mentions few other
facts, so it is not really necessary to pare down the facts in the brief. Some opinions will go into
great detail regarding the facts, and you will have to decide which facts really make a difference
and which are mere details that do not need to appear in your brief.

Procedural History: Write down what happened procedurally between the time the lawsuit was
filed and the time one of the parties appealed. There will usually be some explanation of what
happened in the lower (trial) court before the case arrived at the higher (appellate) court. Just
begin by jotting down where the lawsuit was filed (South Carolina state court, in Worley). In a
criminal case like Worley, you should also note the crime that the defendant was charged with
(escape) and whether the defendant was convicted.

Issue: This is probably the most important section of the brief. Write a yes-or-no question that
identifies the specific issue that the court must answer in order to decide which party will win the
appeal. You might include a few key facts in order to make the issue statement more specific and
concrete. Note that the Worley brief does so by mentioning that the defendant sought medical
treatment after his escape, but failed to report to authorities for two years thereafter, in the Issue
section. Be sure not to make your issue statement so general that it fails to indicate what the case
was about. “Did the lower court err?” “Should the defendant have been convicted?” and “Was a
necessity defense available?” are all much too general to be helpful in a brief of Worley because
they fail to indicate that this case involved someone who left prison because of inadequate
medical treatment, but failed to report to authorities for two years after he received proper
medical care.

Holding and (Judgment): The Holding section is also very important. It should contain 1) a
yes-or-no answer to the issue question; 2) the issue question turned into an affirmative or
negative statement; and 3) any brief qualification necessary to make the statement accurate, or a
very brief “because” clause. (The notation about the Judgment describes the procedural outcome
resulting from the opinion. Usually the court will either have affirmed or reversed the judgment
below.)

Reasoning: This is an extremely important section of the brief. Describe what led the court to
answer the issue question as it did. Often, the court’s reasoning will consist of a description of
pre-existing principles of law, followed by an explanation of how they apply to the case before
the court. Sometimes, a court will identify policy reasons that support its decision, and it may
also describe the negative consequences of coming to a different conclusion.

Dissent (or Concurrence): Sometimes your casebook editor will include a dissenting opinion or
a concurring opinion. (A concurrence is an opinion that agrees with the majority about the end
result but disagrees about the reasons leading to it.) If your editor thought this opinion was
important enough to include in the book, you should summarize it in your brief.

Comments: It is often helpful to give yourself some space to step back and note your own
reaction to the court’s decision. Do not be surprised if you sometimes disagree with the court. In
addition, explain why you believe your professor assigned this case to you at this point in the
course. What were you supposed to learn from it? How does it fit in with what you’ve already
covered in the course? Where might this case lead?”

Excerpted from:

Legal Research, Analysis & Writing | University of South Carolina School of Law. (n.d.). School

of Law | University of South Carolina. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from

http://law.sc.edu/lraw