Terms Related To Case Briefs Flashcards
Case Brief
A case brief is a generic term for a short, organized document created and utilized by the student or attorney, which summarizes key aspects of a case. A brief should contain parts of the case selected as important and organized for the purpose at hand, which may not necessarily be the haphazard order in which the parts may have been reported.
Case briefs may utilize “FIRAC”
Generally speaking, a case brief usually contains the material facts of case, the issue presented to the court, the rule of law, the analysis, and the conclusion or resolution of the issue. A case brief may also include the case citation, procedural steps, and a summary of the dissent.
Material Fact
Material facts are those facts which have legal consequences. Summarizing material facts for a case brief does not require reciting all the details which can be learned, but rather selecting events that are relevant to the court’s decision.
Issue or Question Presented
The issue of a case is the question which the parties to litigation present to the court for decision.
Elements of a Crime
In order to prevail in a criminal case, the prosecution is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the constituent parts of the crime which the defendant is accused. These parts are commonly referred to as the “elements of a crime”. Under the Model Penal Code, the component parts of a crime include the actus reus, causation, mens rea, mitigating factors and defenses.
Rules applicable to the case
To resolve a case, rules of law are ordinarily applied to the unique facts of the issue before the court. Constitutional, statutory, case law, or administrative regulations are among the rules of law which a judge may rely upon to decide the case.
Analysis
Judges apply legal principles to unique factual situations before the court and test the application by weighing potential legal consequences. The analysis of a court decision is the official explanation of how the judge responsible for the decision arrived at its result.
Holding of a case
The holding of a case answers the issue or question presented in the case. The case holding may be a single sentence and generally includes facts important to the rule of law applied in the case.
Authorities
Citations to constitutions, statutes, precedents, judicial decisions, rules, regulations, textbooks, articles, and the like made to support a legal argument before the court.
Case heading
Preceding each published court decision is a heading which includes: 1) names of the parties to the suit, 2) citation of the case including the volume and page number where the case can be found, 3) name of the court which decided the dispute, and 4) the date the decision was reached.
Head note
A head note summarizes all key points discussed and issues decided in a case. Head notes follow the heading of the case and precede the text of the judicial opinion.
Procedure
The method of proceeding to enforce a legal right. Procedure should be distinguished from substantive law which gives or defines the right which one is attempting to enforce.
