Case Briefing Case Study

CASE BRIEFS
General Guidelines

"BRIEFING" CASES

A crucial part of studying law is learning how to understand the importance of a case decision and what crucial issues the court is addressing. The best way to learn legal reasoning and to understand case law is by summarizing the case yourself in what is commonly called a "brief".

A brief is simply a format in which the case is summarized and the key portions discussed. Law school and advanced legal education is almost completely dedicated to learning the law by reading and briefing cases. Some students truly enjoy the briefing process and learning how to identify how and why legal decisions are made. Other students are less enthusiastic. One fact is certain: there is no better way

While at the police station, the victim identified Miranda as her attacker. Miranda was 23 years old, poor and had completed only half of ninth grade. Two officers questioned Miranda for two hours, during which time he was never advised of his right not to incriminate himself, or of his right to have an attorney present during the interrogation. The officers obtained a written confession from Miranda. At trial, the confession and eyewitness identification were admitted into evidence (over defense objections). Miranda was convicted of rape and

The books containing cases, known as reporters, are organized into volumes and take up many large library shelves in hard copy. Here, one would find volume number 384 to look for the Miranda case. Although much legal research is now done electronically, the cases are still divided into "volumes" in this fashion. The letters following the volume number identify what reporter in which the case is located. In the example, "U.S." identifies the reporter as the "United States Reports" and tells us that it is a U.S. Supreme Court case. After the reporter designation is the page number. In the example, the Miranda case starts at page