What format should a case brief be in?
Asked by: Ms. Katlyn West | Last update: January 4, 2026Score: 4.4/5 (15 votes)
Every brief should include, at a minimum, the facts of the case, the legal issue, the legal principle applied in the case, the holding and reasoning of the majority, and a summary of any concurrences and dissents. Your brief should not exceed 600 words, excluding concurrences and dissents.
What is the format for a case brief?
Components of a Case Brief A case brief is made up of 7 main components. The main components include the case name, facts, procedural history, issue, holding, reasoning, and rule.
How do you format a court brief?
- The name of the case.
- The names of the parties involved.
- The current stage of litigation.
- The legal issue being addressed.
- Relevant facts of the case.
- The rule of law applied.
- Your argument.
- A conclusion.
Should a case brief be double spaced?
(1) The lines on each page must be one and one-half spaced or double-spaced and numbered consecutively.
What is the IRAC method of case briefing?
What is IRAC? IRAC stands for the “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion” structure of legal analysis. An effective essay follows some form of the IRAC structure where it is organized around an “issue”, a “rule”, an “application”, and a “conclusion” for each and every issue and sub-issue identified as a legal problem.
How to Do a Case Brief
What is the proper IRAC format?
IRAC is the typical organizational structure that most professors require on law school exams. IRAC is an acronym, standing for Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion. Thus, the acronym IRAC tells you the exact order of your paragraphs. You start with the issue, then provide a rule, then analyze, and then conclude.
How long should a case brief be?
Try to keep your briefs to one page in length. This will make it easy for you to organize and reference them. Do not get discouraged. Learning to brief and figuring out exactly what to include will take time and practice.
What is the case brief rule?
A case brief is a short summary of the main points of the decision. The key is short— do not rewrite the opinion, but rather distill it down to its essence. Why brief? Besides being a good way to prepare for class, briefing has some other advantages.
What font should a case brief be?
Court rules
As shown above, California Title Two rules state that the fonts used in submitted documents must be “essentially equivalent” to Courier, Times New Roman, or Arial. The law does not require your document to be in one of these fonts, just that the font you use is similar to these standard system fonts.
How many words is a case brief?
(c) Length
(1) Except as provided in (5), a brief produced on a computer must not exceed 14,000 words, including footnotes. Such a brief must include a certificate by appellate counsel or an unrepresented party stating the number of words in the brief.
How do you format a brief report?
- • A separate title page with full disclosure information, as outlined below.
- o A structured Abstract.
- o An Introduction section.
- o A Methods section.
- o A Results section.
- o A Discussion section, including limitations.
- o A Conclusions section.
How do you write a proper brief?
- Explain the goals and motivations. You should start your brief by writing about the project background and brand. ...
- Highlight specific objectives and challenges. ...
- Describe your target audience. ...
- Examine competitors. ...
- Ask for feedback.
How do you format a court case?
Case citations generally includes the case name, followed by the reporter volume, the reporter abbreviation, the first page of the case, the specific page for the cited material, and the court abbreviation and date in parentheses (unless the court name is obvious from the reporter abbreviation).
How to format a legal brief?
Legal brief structure
While there is no hard and fast rule about the structure of a brief, it should contain the following elements: Introduction to your position. Summary of the facts in the case. Arguments in support of your position with cited case law.
What format should a case study be in?
Generally, a case study is either formatted as an essay or a report. If it is the latter, your assignment is often divided into sections with headings and subheadings to ensure easy access to key points of interest.
What is the proper case format?
Proper case is any text that is written with each of the first letters of every word being capitalized. For example, "This Is An Example Of Proper Case." is an example of sentence in proper case. Proper case should not be confused with Title case, which is most of the words being capitalized.
What is a case brief supposed to look like?
While each case has its own unique details—and uses varied versions of this outline—a brief should include only the most important points of your case and stay within 600 words before concurrences and dissents, using the following headings: Title and citation. Facts. Issues.
What is the best font for a brief?
Accordingly, to encourage the use of typefaces that are easier to read, today the Court announces that its preferred typefaces are Times New Roman, Century Schoolbook, and Georgia. The Court discourages the use of Garamond, which appears smaller and lighter than the preferred typefaces.
What font style and size for case study?
Use an 8 ½” × 11” bond paper with 1” margin on each side. The paragraph must use 1.0 line spacing using Arial font, size 12 pt, and must be justified. Use the American Psychological Association (APA) style for formatting and referencing.
How long are case briefs supposed to be?
Too short, and you risk omitting crucial information; too long, and you might as well be reading the full case again. As a general rule of thumb, a well-crafted case brief should fall somewhere between one and three pages in length.
What is the difference between a case brief and a trial brief?
A. A case brief is a dissection of a judicial opinion -- it contains a written summary of the basic components of that decision. B. Persuasive briefs (trial and appellate) are the formal documents a lawyer files with a court in support of his or her client's position.
Do lawyers use case briefs?
It is important to remember, however, that briefing cases is a large part of being a lawyer. The better you get at it now, the more effective you'll be in the future. When practicing, it will become equally as important that you read and analyze cases quickly as it is important that you do so accurately.
What is the rule in a case brief?
Every brief should include, at a minimum, the facts of the case, the legal issue, the legal principle applied in the case, the holding and reasoning of the majority, and a summary of any concurrences and dissents. Your brief should not exceed 600 words, excluding concurrences and dissents.
What should a good brief include?
Identify & understand your target audience: This is a critical part of the process. The more depth you can provide the better. Great briefs go a step further into the persona, to describe feelings, thoughts, perceptions, motivations. It's also helpful to share what's worked in other activity you have tried.
Is a case brief double spaced?
The brief must be on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. The text must be double-spaced, but quotations more than two lines long may be indented and single- spaced.