7 - Intro to Legal Analysis Flashcards
element
a portion of a rule that is a pre-condition of the applicability of the entire rule
issue
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)
legal issue
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)
verdict
the jury’s finding or decision on the factual issues placed before it
judgment
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
bench trial
a trial before a judge without a jury (non-jury trial)
element in contention
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
wholesale
the purchase of goods in large quantities that will be retailed to consumers by others
factor
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
dispositive
pertaining to something that is essential to a decision; pertaining to a deciding factor or consideration
memorandum
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
IRAC
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
IFRAC
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
docket number
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
RE
regarding, concerning; in the matter of
roadmap photograph
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
counter analysis
arguments that support a different result or conclusion; counterarguments
STOP
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
casebook
a law-school textbook containing numerous edited court opinions and related materials assembled for a course
case
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
brief
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
trial brief
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)
holding
a court’s answer to one of the legal issues in the case (ruling)
reporter
a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions
unofficial reporter
a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions printed by a commercial publishing company without special authority from the government
official reporter
a volume (or set of volumes) of court opinions printed by or under the authority of the government
citation
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
parallel cite
an additional citation where you can find the same written material in the library or online
public-domain citation
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)
appellant
the party bringing an appeal because of disagreement with a decision of a lower tribunal (petitioner)
plaintiff
the party who initiates a civil (and sometimes a criminal) action in court
defendant
the party against whom a civil or criminal action if brought in court
respondent
the party against whom an appeal is brought (appellee)
citator
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
syllabus
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
headnote
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
key number
a general topic and a number; used by West to organize millions of cases by topic in its multi-volume digests
digest
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
Westlaw
a fee-based system of computer-assisted legal research owned by Thomson Reuters, current version is WestlawNext
per curiam opinion
an opinion issued “by the [whole] court,” usually a short opinion that doesn’t name the judge who wrote it
memorandum opinion (mem.)
the decision of a court rendered with few or no supporting reasons, often because it follows well-known or established principles (memorandum decision)
key fact
a fact that was very important or essential in reaching a decision
reasoning
an explanation of why the court resolved an issue the way it did; the reasons the court reached its holding on an issue
disposition
a court’s final order that is reached as a result of its holding(s)
affirm
to agree with or uphold the lower court judgment
vacate
to cancel or set aside
remand
to send back; to return a case to a lower tribunal with instructions from a higher tribunal or how to proceed
dictum
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”)
majority opinion
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
concurring opinion
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
unanimous opinion
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
plurality opinion
the opinion agreed to by the largest number of judges hearing the case when there is no majority opinion
dissenting opinion
an opinion that disagrees with part or all of the results or judgment reached by the majority or plurality opinion
hypothetical
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
res judicata
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
on the merits
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
analogous
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
mandatory authority
primary authority that is binding; it must be followed
persuasive authority
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
on all fours
exactly the same, or almost so; a very close precedent
