EMPLOYMENT LAW AND LEGISLATION Case Briefing Worksheet A case brief is a summary of a judicial opinion outlined in a form that clarifies the facts, issues, holding and rationale in that opinion. It is used by attorneys and legal researchers to provide a quick review of the key elements of an opinion. Case briefs have several purposes. Good briefs will help you to better understand the case, and provide good case summaries for future reference. If you are learning to brief a case for the first time, remember there are several ways to brief a case. With practice, you will find a format that works best for you. For our purposes, however, every case brief should include the elements identified below: 1. Case name and citation The names of the principal litigants, volume, reporter and page of the decision should appear at the top of the case brief. Include the court and year of decision in parenthesis. Doe v. State of California (2002) 23 Cal.App.4th 558. 2. Example: Facts In a paragraph or two, state the essential facts that led to the controversy. Be concise, and include relevant information so that the nature of the controversy is understood. Include in your brief only those facts that are legally relevant. A fact is legally relevant if it had an impact on the case's outcome. For example, in a personal injury action arising from a car accident, the color of the parties' cars seldom would be relevant to the case's outcome. Similarly, if the plaintiff and defendant presented different versions of the facts, you should describe those differences only if they are relevant to the court's consideration of the case. Because you will not know which facts are legally relevant until you have read and deciphered the entire case, do not try to brief a case while reading it for the first time. For our purposes, exclude elements of procedure in the lower court, unless they are critical to the resolution of the case. 3. issue(s) State the issue or issues identified by the opinion in question form. Be sure to specify the provisions of law being interpreted. The issue is typically a single narrow question or series of narrow questions that the court is asked to adjudicate. The issues are often explicitly stated by the court in their judgment. Example: Did the Department violate Doe's right to representation when it denied his request for union representation at an investigatory interview? 4. Holding The holding is the court's answer to the question posed in the case. A weak statement of the holding to the example in Section 3 would be "yes." A better statement of the holding answers each issue in a concise and brief statement by identifying the court's resolution of the controversy. Example: The Department violated Doe's right to representation by denying his request for union representation at an investigatory interview when Doe reasonably believed the meeting would result in disciplinary action. 5. Rule(s) The rule is the law that the court applied in the case to achieve the holding. The rule is usually a preexisting statement of the law that most often comes from a constitutional provision, statute, and/or case precedent. 6. Example: Rationale To establish a prima facie violation of the right to representation under the Dills Act, the charging party must establish the following elements: 1) the charging party requested union representation; 2) the representation requested was for an investigatory interview; and 3) the employee reasonably believed the meeting would result in disciplinary action. This section describes how the tribunal resolved the issue. This section of the case brief may be the most important, because you must understand the court's reasoning to analyze it and to apply it to other fact situations, such as those on the exam. Starting with the first issue, summarize all the logical steps the court took in reaching its holding. Keep in mind that the court's rationale can come from several different sources, including case precedent, something particular in the facts, and/or public policy. For the purposes of this exercise, to you a dissenting or concanting opinion, if any. 7. Disposition This section describes how the case was resolved. Did the court decide in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant? What remedy, if any, did the court grant? 8. Your Opinion Do you agree with the court? Briefly (i.e. one or two sentences) explain your opinion.