Case Brief

Please choose .   Parte Brown, Kelo, Lunsford, Shackford, and Title & Trust

However, DO NOT BRIEF WHAT IS INSIDE from your THE TEXTBOOK!!!!  You must obtain the real estate case you pick from our textbook from inside LexisNexis!!!!  

Then prepare a 1-2 page paper, in 12pt Times New Roman font, single spaced, with 1" margins following the criteria in the announcements and below. There are also several documents on how to brief a case attached.

 Your brief must be structured with following headings in bold face as follows: CASE NAME AND CITATION: As a header on the first page of your brief, you should state the name of the case, identify each party’s role in the case, and give the full Bluebook style citation to the case.PARTIES:  Who are the parties?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.PROCEDURAL HISTORY:  Who is asking the court to do what?  How did the case procedurally get before this court?ISSUE(S):  What question or questions did the court have to answer in order to make their decision?  Your issue(s) should be stated in the form of a question. Make sure you address ALL the issues in the case.HOLDING:  Which way did the court answer the questions posed in the issues?  What did they decide?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?

• It must have your Name and Student ID at the top of the paper

• Save the document as Word document and make sure that your Last Name starts the title before doc.  Ex) SmithCaseBrief.doc

• Headings must be boldfaced or underlined

• Headings MUST include all of the following: 

     o Case Name:   

     o Parties:

     o Facts:

     o Procedural History: 

     o Issue:

     o Holding:

     o Reasoning:

     o Judgment:

     o Comments:

• Case Name must be in Bluebook format.  (Main citation points will come from the Reasoning section.  So if there are no cites in the Reasoning section, you will receive little to no points for cites.  You should also put a few cites in the facts section, particularly if you copy the facts verbatim.) You are citing the case you are briefing, as well as the cases or statutes in the case itself.

• All citations should be in Bluebook format.

• Don’t forget to use short form cites and id.

• NO FOOTNOTES!!!!  Legal documents must have in-text cites only!!!

• Who are the Parties?  What are their names and are the a Defendant or Plaintiff? Maybe they are the Appellee  or Appellant?  A Petitioner or Respondent?

• What are the Facts?  This section should not be too long or too short.  It is typically one or two paragraphs which tell the reader what happened before the parties go to court.  This is what we call the ‘back story.”  Imagine you were trying to describe why everyone was suing everyone else to a friend.  How would you describe the story?  What happened once someone sued someone should not be in this section.  It will go in the Procedural History.

• Procedural History must be explained if it is an appeals or supreme court case.  What happened in the lower court to get appealed to this court?  Who sued, when and what happened in that other case?  Do not talk about what happened in the case you are briefing though.  The outcome of this case will go in your Judgment.

• What is the main Issue?  This is a 1 sentence question!!!  So we must put a question mark at the end of the sentence in the Issue section.  

• The Holding is the short 1 sentence (not 1 word) answer to the issue question.  It is not the judgment.  The Judgment is whether it was affirmed, denied, etc. 

• The Reasoning is a thorough explanation of what the court said in the case.  It should be the longest part of a case brief and at least 3 paragraphs!  Talk about what cases or statutes the court relied on and discussed to come to their decision.

• Comments are your own comments on why this case was important to you, the world or society.  Do you think justice was served?  Do you think the court was correct in their judgment?  Was there any dissent? Would you have ruled a different way if you were the judge?   

• DO NOT research the case ONLINE!!!  Use LexisNexis!!!!!  The case you find online via google may NOT be correct and will not contain the correct page numbers!!!!  

I have attached the rubric, which can be reviewed to make sure you have properly met all parts of the assignment to receive the maximum points.  

Here is the Breakdown of Points:

Writing: 10/10

Citations: 10/10

Case Name: 5/5

Facts: 10/10

Procedural History: 10/10

Issue: 10/10

Holding: 5/5

Reasoning: 25/25

Judgment: 5/5

Comments/Dissent: 10/10

 Legal case names should be done in standard “Blue Book” format.  Example: York v. Smith, 65 U.S. 294 (1995). For more information on case brief format see "How to Brief a Case" in the Case Brief folder in the Student Resources. There is also a model case brief in the case of Delahanty v. Hinckley that you should review.  I want the brief to be in your own words, so do NOT include 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 copying and pasting from your source. Most of the material should be paraphrased; quotations should make up no more than 10%  of the brief.  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.