how to read & summarise case law PDF

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A comprehensive, summative and insightful document teaching you everything you need to know about how to read case law and make helpful, necessary summaries so that you can succeed and excel at law school....

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HOW TO READ AND SUMMARISE A CASE:

Reading cases: 1. Find the legal question this is the thing the case is trying to answer, whether it be asking about the constitutionality of a provision of legislation or whether someone’s criminal actions could be excused based on a certain criminal element. Often this is presented in the Headnote of the case or early during the judgement. 2. Finding the facts (this is the background story of how the case same to be → includes who, when, where and what; sets out who the applicants/plaintiffs/appellants and the defendants/respondents are. Tells you whether this is an appeal case, what court this trial takes place in, and what happened in the court a quo (the original court where the case was presented). 3. Identifying the Arguments This is given after all of the facts are presented. It usually occurs anywhere from a few paragraphs to a few pages after the facts are given. Here, parties will present their argument as to why they think they are correct through their counsel (lawyer). Parties may rely on expert witnesses, other cases or legislation, physical evidence and journal articles to back-up their argument. 4. Decision this is the final outcome of the case, and is right at the end of the document in the last one or two paragraphs. This will set out what the order is, usually in bullet points, including who is to pay the legal costs of the trial (if relevant) as well as if certain provisions of the case are to be referred to a higher court for confirmation (if applicable). 5. Reasoning: This is the reasoning for the decision reached by the judge and will likely be found in the last few paragraphs or pages before the decision is laid out. This area also often summarizes some of most important parts of the argument and it usually becomes clear at this point which party’s argument the judge finds most plausible or acceptable. there isn’t an official way to do this, it’s just what works for me Summarizing cases 1. Set out your heading: “case name and citation” in bold, capital letters 2. Sub-headings: set out the headings for: legal question, Facts, Arguments, Decision and Reasoning in bold, lowercase letters 3. First find the legal question and type it out next to your sub-heading 4. Find the facts, arguments, reasoning and decision of the case and type it out under the relevant sub-heading in a bullet point list. 5. If the judge made any important remarks or something is mentioned about the case in class that is noteworthy, and it doesn’t fit under any of the subheadings, simply type it out below the summary in a different font or colour so that it stands out from the main points of your case....