7 - Intro to Legal Analysis

Question 1

element

Answer 1

a portion of a rule that is a pre-condition of the applicability of the entire rule

Question 2

issue

Answer 2

1 - a question to be resolved
2 - a question of law
3 - a question of fact; a dispute over the existence or non-existence of the alleged facts (factual issue, issue of fact, question of fact)

Question 3

legal issue

Answer 3

a question of law; a question of what the law is, what the law means, or how the law applies to specific facts (issue, issue of law)

Question 4

verdict

Answer 4

the jury’s finding or decision on the factual issues placed before it

Question 5

judgment

Answer 5

the final conclusion of a court that resolves a legal dispute by declaring the rights and obligations of the parties or that specifies what further proceedings are needed to resolve it

Question 6

bench trial

Answer 6

a trial before a judge without a jury (non-jury trial)

Question 7

element in contention

Answer 7

the portion of a rule about which the parties cannot agree; disagreement may be over the definition of the element, whether the facts fit within the element, or both

Question 8

wholesale

Answer 8

the purchase of goods in large quantities that will be retailed to consumers by others

Question 9

factor

Answer 9

1 - one of the circumstances or considerations that will be weighed in making a decision
2 - one of the circumstances or considerations that will be weighed in deciding whether an element applies

Question 10

dispositive

Answer 10

pertaining to something that is essential to a decision; pertaining to a deciding factor or consideration

Question 11

memorandum

Answer 11

1 - a short note
2 - a written record of a transaction
3 - a memorandum of law or legal memorandum, which is a written explanation of how one or more rules might apply to the facts of a client’s case

Question 12

IRAC

Answer 12

an acronym that stands for the components of legal analysis: issue (I), rule (R), application of the rule to the facts (A), and conclusion (C); provides a structure for legal analysis

Question 13

IFRAC

Answer 13

an acronym that stands for the components of legal analysis: issue (I), facts (F), rule (R), application of the rule to the facts (A), and conclusion (C); IFRAC provides a structure for legal analysis

Question 14

docket number

Answer 14

a consecutive number assigned to a case by the court and used on all documents filed with the court during the litigation of that case

Question 15

RE

Answer 15

regarding, concerning; in the matter of

Question 16

roadmap photograph

Answer 16

an overview, introductory, or thesis paragraph at the beginning of a memorandum of law that tells the reader what issues will be covered and briefly states the conclusions that will be reached

Question 17

counter analysis

Answer 17

arguments that support a different result or conclusion; counterarguments

Question 18

STOP

Answer 18

a writing technique alerting you to the need for a counter analysis: after writing a Sentence that contains facts or analysis, Think carefully about whether that Other side would take a Position that is different from the one you took in the sentence

Question 19

casebook

Answer 19

a law-school textbook containing numerous edited court opinions and related materials assembled for a course

Question 20

case

Answer 20

1 - a court’s written explanation of how it applied the law to the facts to resolve a legal dispute (opinion, court opinion, judicial opinion, decision)
2 - a pending matter on a court calendar
3 - a client matter handled by a law office

Question 21

brief

Answer 21

1 - the ten parts of a court opinion: citation, parties, objectives of parties, theories of the litigation, history of the litigation, facts, issues, holdings, reasoning, and disposition
2 - trial brief
3 - appellate brief

Question 22

trial brief

Answer 22

1 - an attorney’s written presentation to a trial court of the legal issues and positions of their client (trial memorandum)
2 - an attorney’s personal notes on how they will conduct a particular trial (trial manual, trial book)

Question 23

holding

Answer 23

a court’s answer to one of the legal issues in the case (ruling)

Question 24

reporter

Answer 24

a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions

Question 25

unofficial reporter

Answer 25

a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions printed by a commercial publishing company without special authority from the government

Question 26

official reporter

Answer 26

a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions printed by or under the authority of the government

Question 27

citation

Answer 27

a reference to any legal authority printed on paper or stored in a computer database that will allow you to locate that authority; as a verb, to cite something means to give its location (e.g. volume number or Web address) where you can read it; the paper or online “address” where you can read something

Question 28

parallel cite

Answer 28

an additional citation where you can find the same written material in the library or online

Question 29

public-domain citation

Answer 29

1 - a citation that is not dependent on the volume and page number of a reporter
2 - a citation that is both medium neutral (can be read in a paper volume or online) and vendor-neutral (doesn’t not contain volume, page, or other identifying info created by particular vendors such as a commercial publisher); each paragraph is consecutively numbered so that you can refer to specific language in the opinion by paragraph number rather than page number (vendor-neutral citation, generic citation, medium-neutral citation)

Question 30

appellant

Answer 30

the party bringing an appeal because of disagreement with a decision of a lower tribunal (petitioner)

Question 31

plaintiff

Answer 31

the party who initiates a civil (and sometimes a criminal) action in court

Question 32

defendant

Answer 32

the party against whom a civil or criminal action if brought in court

Question 33

respondent

Answer 33

the party against whom an appeal is brought (appellee)

Question 34

citator

Answer 34

a book or online service containing lists of citations that can

a) help you assess the current validity of an opinion, statute, or other items; and
b) give you leads to additional relevant materials

Question 35

syllabus

Answer 35

a brief summary or outline; for court opinions, it is also called a case synopsis and is printed before the opinion begins, usually a summary of the entire opinion

Question 36

headnote

Answer 36

a short paragraph summary of a portion of a court opinion (usually covering a single point of law) printed before the opinion begins; these headnotes will also be printed in digest volumes, which serves as an index to all court opinions

Question 37

key number

Answer 37

a general topic and a number; used by West to organize millions of cases by topic in its multi-volume digests

Question 38

digest

Answer 38

a set of volumes that contain brief summaries of points of law in court opinions; when summaries are printed in digests they are sometimes called abstracts or squibs

Question 39

Westlaw

Answer 39

a fee-based system of computer-assisted legal research owned by Thomson Reuters, current version is WestlawNext

Question 40

per curiam opinion

Answer 40

an opinion issued “by the [whole] court,” usually a short opinion that doesn’t name the judge who wrote it

Question 41

memorandum opinion (mem.)

Answer 41

the decision of a court rendered with few or no supporting reasons, often because it follows well-known or established principles (memorandum decision)

Question 42

key fact

Answer 42

a fact that was very important or essential in reaching a decision

Question 43

reasoning

Answer 43

an explanation of why the court resolved an issue the way it did; the reasons the court reached its holding on an issue

Question 44

disposition

Answer 44

a court’s final order that is reached as a result of its holding(s)

Question 45

affirm

Answer 45

to agree with or uphold the lower court judgment

Question 46

vacate

Answer 46

to cancel or set aside

Question 47

remand

Answer 47

to send back; to return a case to a lower tribunal with instructions from a higher tribunal or how to proceed

Question 48

dictum

Answer 48

a statement or observation made by a judge in an opinion that is not essential to resolve the issues before the court; comments that go beyond the facts before the court (short for obiter dictum “something said in passing”)

Question 49

majority opinion

Answer 49

an opinion whose final conclusion or judgment is agreed to by more than half of the judges hearing the case; this agreement includes the holdings and reasoning for the holidays

Question 50

concurring opinion

Answer 50

an opinion written by less than a majority of the judges hearing the case; the opinion agrees with the final conclusion or judgment of the majority opinion but wishes to add its own comments or reasoning, if the majority opinion has more than one holding, there can be a concurring opinion on only some of the holdings

Question 51

unanimous opinion

Answer 51

an opinion in which all of the judges hearing the case agree with the final conclusion or judgment, including all of the holdings and reasoning

Question 52

plurality opinion

Answer 52

the opinion agreed to by the largest number of judges hearing the case when there is no majority opinion

Question 53

dissenting opinion

Answer 53

an opinion that disagrees with part or all of the results or judgment reached by the majority or plurality opinion

Question 54

hypothetical

Answer 54

1 - a set of facts assumed to exist for purposes of discussion or learning
2 - not actual or real but presented for purposes of discussion or analysis; based on an assumed set of facts; based on a hypothesis

Question 55

res judicata

Answer 55

a defense raised

a) to prevent the same parties from re-trying (re-litigating) a claim that has already been resolved on the merits of a prior case or
b) to prevent the litigation of a claim arising out of the same transaction involved in the first case that could have been raised in the first case but was not

Question 56

on the merits

Answer 56

pertaining to a court decision that is based on the facts and on the substance of the claim, rather than solely on a procedural ground or other technicality

Question 57

analogous

Answer 57

1 - sufficiently similar to justify a similar outcome or result
2 - sufficiently similar to lend support
3 - on point; germane; involving the same or similar issues; involving facts or rules that are similar to those now under consideration

Question 58

mandatory authority

Answer 58

primary authority that is binding; it must be followed

Question 59

persuasive authority

Answer 59

any primary or secondary authority that is not binding on a court, but that could be relied on by the court because it finds the authority helpful (persuasive) in reaching its decision

Question 60

on all fours

Answer 60

exactly the same, or almost so; a very close precedent