The HTS Law School Guide to

Preparing a Case
Brief
 What is a Brief?
Appellate Briefs versus Student Briefs

Confusion often arises over the term “legal brief.” There are at least two
different senses in which the term is used.
Student Brief: A student brief is a short summary and analysis of the case
prepared for use in classroom discussion. It is a set of notes, presented in a
systematic way, in order to sort out the parties, identify the issues,
ascertain what was decided, and analyze the reasoning behind decisions
made by the courts.
Appellate Brief: An appellate brief is a written legal argument presented
to an appellate court. Its purpose is to persuade the higher court to uphold
or reverse the trial court’s decision. Briefs of this kind are therefore geared
to presenting the issues involved in the case from the perspective of one
side only.
Appellate briefs from both sides can be very valuable to anyone assessing
the legal issues raised in a case. Unfortunately, they are rarely published.

nex
t
 Preparing a Case Brief
What is a brief?:
Essentially, a case brief is a well structured summary of a case.

Why brief a case?

Learning by doing (ie. writing) is often better than passive learning. (ie.
merely reading the case).

A summary often helps one remember the facts and issues of a case.

Briefing a case helps to isolate legal rules, tests, and standards.

Briefing provides practice in isolating relevant facts from irrelevant facts.

Briefing provides practice in framing an issue.

nex
t
 Format of a Case Brief

There are many common formats for case briefs. Formats are
often tailored to suit the needs of the student or the course.

Key characteristics of an effective format include:

consistency in structure
concise / efficient writing
relevance in choice of material

Although student briefs generally include the same items of

information, the form in which these items are set out can vary.
Before students commit to a particular form for briefing cases,
they are always well advised to check with their instructor to
nex
ensure they are using an acceptable format. t
Key aspects of a case to be
included within a brief:

case citation
nature of dispute
procedural status
relevant facts
key issues
relevant rules of law
holding
ratio dicidendi

nex
t
 Case Citation
parties [style of cause], date published, case-reporting publication, pg.
no., court)

Style of Date
cause: Published
Criminal
R. Stands for
“Rex” (King)
or “Regina” R. v. Oakes, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 103 (S.C.C.)
(Queen)
In other
words, the
state versus
Supreme
an individual.
Court of
Volume 1 of
Canada.
the Supreme
Court
Records, page
103.
nex
t
 Case Citation
parties [style of cause], date published, case-reporting publication, pg.
no., court)

Style of Date
cause: Published
Civil
First name is
plaintiff.
Second name Martin v. Perrie, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 41 (S.C.C.)
is the
defendant.

Supreme
Court of
Volume 1 of
Canada.
the Supreme
Court
Records, page
41.
nex
t
 An Acceptable format for a Case
Case Citation Brief
Facts of the Case: Here the student should outline the essential facts of
the case, particularly those facts bearing upon or leading up to the issue.
(More…)
Statement of Issue(s): Here the student should outline the dispute to
be resolved by this particular court. For example, which rule of law should
be applied? How should a given element of a rule be defined? What
general principle(s) of law are illustrated by the case? What legal test(s)
should be applied? (More…)
Rationale (Ratio Dicidendi): Here the student should outline the
reasoning behind the court's decision. (Was the court reasoning based on
precedent, economics, politics, sociology, fairness, etc..?) The reasoning,
or rationale, is the chain of argument which led the judges in either a
majority or a dissenting opinion to rule as they did. This should be
outlined point by point in numbered sentences or paragraphs.
Court Holding: Here the student should indicate the decision of the
court in this case.
Analyses: Here the student should evaluate the significance of the case,
its relationship to other cases, its place in history, and what is shows
about the Court, its members, its decision-making processes, or the
impact it has on litigants, government, or society. It is here that the
implicit assumptions and values of the Justices should be probed, nexthe
“rightness” of the decision debated, and the logic of the reasoning t
 Facts of the Case
A good student brief will include a summary of the pertinent facts and legal
points raised in the case. It will show the nature of the litigation, what
occurrences transpired, and, if the case is an appeal, what happened in the
lower court(s). The fact section of a good student brief will include the
following elements:
A one-sentence description of the nature of the case, to serve as an
introduction.

A statement of the relevant law, with quotation marks or underlining to

draw attention to the key words or phrases that are in dispute.

A summary of the complaint (in a civil case) or the indictment (in a

criminal case) plus relevant evidence and arguments presented in court
to explain who did what to whom and why the case was thought to
involve illegal conduct.

A summary of actions taken by the lower courts, for example: defendant

convicted; conviction upheld by appellate court; Supreme Court granted
certiorari.

Note: The facts are often conveniently summarized at the beginning of the court’s published
opinion. Sometimes, the best statement of the facts will be found in a dissenting or concurring
opinion. Why? Sadly, judges are not above being selective about the facts they emphasize. This
 Statement of Issues
The issues or questions of law raised by the facts particular to the case are
often stated explicitly by the court.
Constitutional cases frequently involve multiple issues, some of interest only
to litigants and lawyers, others of broader and enduring significance to
average citizens. Students should be se sure to include both types of issues.
With rare exceptions, the outcome of an appellate case will turn on the
precise meaning of a law, a judicial doctrine, or a provision of the
Constitution. Students are well advised to capture that provision or debated
point, and to set it off with quotation marks or underlines. This tactic will
help students later when they try to reconcile conflicting cases.
When noting issues, it helps to phrase them in terms of questions
that can be answered with a precise “yes” or “no.”
NOTE: Students who misread cases generally do so because they fail to clearly see the issues
involved. There is no substitute for taking the time to carefully frame the issues in terms of
questions that are capable of being given precise answers. It may also help to label the issues, for
example, “procedural issues,” “substantive issues,” “legal issues,” and so on. Remember that the
same case may be used for different purposes, so part of the challenge of briefing is to identify
those issues in the case which are of central importance to the current topic under consideration
in class.

nex
t
For a Case Brief template, click on the button
below:

Case Brief Template

 Rules of Law
In any form of case analyses, it is important to be able to distinguish
between a “law” and a “rule of law.”
Law: A command enacted by a legislature, formally recognized as binding,
and enforced by a controlling authority.
Rule of Law: An accepted principle, test, or perspective that assists the
judiciary in interpreting and applying a law.
Rules of law can find their source in many places. For the most part, such
rules are developed and recorded within case law. Over time these rules may
become popularly known under certain names or terms, and they can often
be expressed as a legal “test” that can then be applied to future cases. For
example, the “Oakes Test,” developed in the landmark case R. v. Oakes
(1986), is used to determine if Canadian legislation can survive an Article 1
(limitations clause) challenge.
Still other rules of law may be contained in ancient and commonly accepted
legal axioms, and are often expressed using a Latin phrase, such as “res
judicata” – meaning that once a legal dispute has been decided, it cannot be
litigated (tried) again.
Finally, statute law itself can provide rules of law. Statutes will often define
certain terms that are used within the statute. These definitions are intended
to guide judges as they interpret and apply the statute, and can therefore be
thought of as a peripheral rule of law.