• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Law School Toolbox®

All the tools you need for law school success

  • Tutoring
  • Courses
    • Start Law School Right
  • Job Help
  • Law School 101
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • About

How to Brief a Case in Law School

August 15, 2012 By Lee Burgess 6 Comments

If you are starting law school in the next few weeks, you will soon notice that everyone is talking about briefing cases. But many people don’t understand what effective “briefing” is. Well, we are here to help.

What’s a Case Brief?

In a nutshell, a case brief is nothing more than a set of notes you take on each assigned case, to ensure you’re paying attention to the important points (and so you’ll be ready for the class discussion).

However, reasonable people disagree about the best way to brief cases!

Written Briefs

Your professor, and your legal writing instructors, will probably tell you that you need to actually write/type out your case briefs. There’s nothing wrong with doing this (and Lee briefed most of the cases she was assigned this way), but there are other options.

Book Briefing

The most common alternative is “book briefing.” This approach, made popular by Law School Confidential, involves simply highlighting different parts of the case in different colors, right there in your textbook (hence the name). If it helps, you can also draw a little picture at the top, to remind you of the facts.

The Choice is Yours!

It’s really up to you what you want to do, but we suggest trying out both options, and weighing the pros and cons. For many law students, the extra time required to write up case briefs is time well spent, but it is time-consuming! If you’re someone who has a good recall for facts and you tend to understand the things you read on a single pass, book briefing might be a more efficient option. (Alison exclusively book briefed, so it’s definitely possible.)

Let’s Look at Some Examples

So, let’s look at two example briefs.

  • Here’s the traditional brief. (Click to download.)
  • Here’s the book brief. (Click to download.)
What Goes in a Traditional Case Brief?

It’s fine to adapt the suggested sample brief to your own learning style, but – at a minimum – you generally want to include:

  • the names of the parties
  • the court the opinion came from
  • the judge
  • the procedural history
  • the facts
  • the issues
  • the holding
  • the black-letter law (which might be different from the holding, in some cases)
  • the legal reasoning
  • why the case was included in your reading assignment (why was it important to read it)
  • any questions you have after reading the case (so you can get them answered).

Don’t worry if your first case brief isn’t perfect! Briefing is a skill you’ll develop as you become more comfortable reading cases.

How Do You Book Brief?

If you’re book briefing, you still want to identify all the items listed above. You also want to focus on making each section easy to find on the fly (as you may have to look for an answer quickly after being called on). How do you do this?

  • Use a consistent color scheme throughout your casebooks so you can identify the different sections at a glance. (Facts are always green, etc.)
  • Be diligent in your highlighting. It can be tempting to highlight the entire case, but force yourself to only highlight the most important things.
Try Both Briefs Out!

Early in the semester it is important to try out different types of briefs to see what works best for you. And remember some briefs will work better for some classes and not others.

Also, keep in mind that as you go through law school, your briefing habits may change. Lee was all about the traditional brief for the first two years of law school, but by third year she found she could book brief and still feel prepared for class (because she was a better law student at that point!).

— – —
Are you on our mailing list? Sign up now and we’ll send you lots of great stuff, totally free!

Also check out these other helpful posts!

  • Is handwriting your class notes a good thing or a bad thing?
  • What should go into your law school class notes? There are five critical things to include.
  • When you’re sitting in class, it’s critical to think through the areas of ambiguity that may make an appearance on a later exam. Here’s one technique for keeping track of everything.
  • Going through orientation? Check out Lee’s reflections on her 1L orientation experience.

Image by abcdz2000 via stock.xchng.


 

Looking for some help to do your best in law school? Find out about our law school tutoring options.


About Lee Burgess

Lee Burgess, Esq. is the co-founder of the Law School Toolbox, a resource for law students that demystifies the law school experience and the Bar Exam Toolbox, a resource for students getting ready for the bar exam. Lee has been adjunct faculty at two bay area law schools teaching classes on law school and bar exam preparation. You can find Lee on Twitter at @leefburgess, @lawschooltools, & @barexamtools.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ade

    08.10.16

    Please what book would you recommend to help new law students on how to brief cases

    Reply
    • Lee Burgess

      08.10.16

      There are plenty of books out there, but we also have our start law school right course that would walk you through this process: https://lawschooltoolbox.com/start-law-school-right/

      Best – Lee

      Reply
  2. Dan

    08.07.19

    Book briefing is for the weak. Handwrite those things so you actually retain the information.

    Reply
  3. G. Singh

    08.21.19

    Are there example cases that I can use to help me get better at briefing?

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Greiner

      08.22.19

      If you already have your casebooks, then you should use those (obviously, within the syllabus is the best way to avoid duplicate work). If you haven’t started school yet, you can look online to find released copies of cases to practice with or Lexis/Westlaw, if those are available.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Guest Post: 5 Tips for 1L Success | Manhattan LSAT Blog says:
    July 1, 2013 at 10:18 am

    […] I’ll argue with some of the goody-two-shoes advice that’s out there about law school (no, I don’t think you have to brief every case to do well), but there are two things I consider non-negotiable: class and the reading. Going to class is a […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Podcast
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Us

If you find law school tough, you are not alone! The Law School Toolbox team is here to help you through it. Check out our helpful free content, podcasts, courses and one-on-one tutoring. Thanks for stopping by and drop us a line if you have any questions. We also invite you to join our weekly mailing list, for advice right to your inbox.

Recent Posts

Why You Should Consider Joining a Reading Group in Law School

Why You Should Consider Joining a Reading Group in Law School

Given how busy law school can get, you may be hesitant to add yet another thing to your plate, especially if it involves yet more reading. But if you … Read More about Why You Should Consider Joining a Reading Group in Law School

Podcast Microphone

Podcast Episode 382: Listen and Learn — Negligence: Proximate Cause

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today, we're discussing Proximate Cause – a subtopic of Negligence in Tort Law. In this episode we … Read More about Podcast Episode 382: Listen and Learn — Negligence: Proximate Cause

How to Take Advantage of Admitted Student Days

How to Take Advantage of Admitted Student Days

Spring is an exciting time for law school applicants. Admissions results have been trickling in over the winter and, by now you have probably heard … Read More about How to Take Advantage of Admitted Student Days

Podcast Microphone

Podcast Episode 381: Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World (w/Eve Rodsky)

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today, we have attorney and author Eve Rodsky back with us to discuss, amongst other things, her … Read More about Podcast Episode 381: Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World (w/Eve Rodsky)

3 Steps to Prepare for the MPRE

3 Steps to Prepare for the MPRE

I started law school thinking that the bar exam was a post-law school problem, only to find that one exam can be taken as soon as post 1L year — the … Read More about 3 Steps to Prepare for the MPRE

Want Better Law School Grades?

Sign Up for Our Exam Tips!

Footer

  • Podcast
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Tutoring
  • Courses
  • Job Help
  • About
  • Contact
  • Login
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Refunds

Copyright 2023 Law School Toolbox®™