The United States legal system utilizes a lawmaking principle known as stare decisis. Under stare decisis, a judge not only interprets the law but has the authority to make the law by deciding cases before her which set precedents for future cases. As a result, attorneys often need to brief cases that have been decided in order to understand the judge's decision and apply it to a current case. The most common form used to brief a legal case is known as IRAC -- Issue, Rule, Analysis and Conclusion.
Instructions
1. Read the case that needs to be briefed at least twice to make sure that you have a firm grasp of the issues and outcome.
2. Create a facts section and a procedural history section. As the name implies, the facts section should simply state the facts as presented to the court. The procedural history section should explain what court decided the case.
3. Determine what the issue was that the court was faced with in the case. For instance, in a criminal case the issue could be whether a search violated the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
4. Find the rule of law. The court used existing rules of law in order to reach the conclusion that it reached. You will need to explain what rules the court used when analyzing the case before it.
5. Analyze the case by discussing how the court applied the rule of law to the issue at hand. The analysis section is generally the longest part of the brief.
6. Conclude the brief by summing up what the court decided. For example the conclusion may be that the search was unconstitutional. The conclusion is usually only one or two sentences.
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