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Reading Legal OpinionsPrep for Law 2014
What’s In a Legal Opinion
O CaptionO Case CitationO Author of OpinionO Facts of the CaseO Law of the CaseO Concurring or Dissenting Opinions
Common Legal Terms Found in Opinions
O Read cases with a legal dictionary nearby!
O Learn terms for civil and criminal disputes
O Learn basic terms in appellate litigation
What You Need to Learn From Reading a Case
O FactsO Specific Legal Arguments Made By
the PartiesO Disposition – The Action the Court
Ultimately TookO Reasoning of the Majority OpinionO Significance of the Majority OpinionO Understand Any Concurring or
Dissenting Opinions
Why Do Law Professors Use the Case Method?
O The Historical Reason:O We inherited English tradition of
Common Law or “judge-made law”O Judges can only decide real cases or
controversiesO Precedent and stare decisisO Christopher Columbus Langdell
Why do Professors Use the Case Method?
O The Practical Reason:O Lawyering Skill: Apply an Abstract
Legal Rule to a New Set of Concrete Facts – Seeing the Law in Facts and the Facts in Law
O Lawyering Skill: Reasoning By Analogy – Compare Your Facts to Other Sets of Facts
O Lawyering Skill: Wrestle with Hypotheticals (“Hypos”) to Define the Limits of Terms and Rules
When You First Begin Reading Opinions
O Before Worrying About Briefing, You Must (1) Read the Case Critically and (2) Understand the Gestalt of the Case, i.e. a Coherent Whole Picture
Beginning Case Reading Worksheet
O Save as a Template on Prep for Law Portfolio and Google Drive
O Print out copies or fill out individual copies as you read
O Will make briefing go fasterO Will train your brain to see what you
need as you read
Now, to PracticeO Read the edited version of the Hobby
Lobby case.O Fill out the Beginning Case Reading
Worksheet as you go.O Add the Worksheet template to your
Prep for Law Portfolio for future use.O On the Discussion Board, post a link to
the template on your site and copy and paste the contents of your completed Worksheet for Hobby Lobby.
