Legal Writing I

1
Legal Writing I

• Review
• Spring 2005

2
Authority

• Primary
• Cases in chain
• Codes
• Constitutions
• Administrative laws
• Secondary
• Legal resources
• Encyclopedias
• Restatements
• ALR
• Mandatory
• Cases higher in the chain
• Statutes
• Persuasive
• Cases from other jurisdictions
• Dicta
• Concurrences
• Dissents

3
Chain of Authority

• Chain of Authority
• Supreme Court
• Appellate Courts
• District Courts
• Rules
• Federal Courts control on federal issues
• State courts are final authority on state issues
• Only use secondary authority if primary is
  unclear
• Higher court disposition
• Approved- affirmed
• Rejected- reversed

4
Research

• Headnotes
• Use as tools
• Keynotes
• Not an official part of the case
• Sources
• Digests- index to cases
• ALR
• Restatements
• CJS/ Am Jur- Encyclopedias
• Statutes
• Shepards
• Lists cases that cite to it
• Subsequent history
• Parallel citations

5
Reporters

• Federal Supreme Court
• U.S.
• S. Ct.
• L. Ed.
• Federal Appellate Courts
• F.3d
• Federal District Courts
• F. Supp. 2d
• State Cases
• Regional Reporters (S.E.2d, S.W.2d)
• State Reporters

6
Codes

• Official
• Annotated
• Contains case references
• Updated more frequently

7
Legal Writing

• Memo
• Predictive/ objective
• Not persuasive (briefs)
• Gives arguments from both sides
• Assumes reader doesnt know the law
• Statement of Facts
• Logical order (chronological)
• States all facts appearing in the discussion
  section
• Question Presented
• Under/ when/ does
• Contains law and facts

8
Analysis

• RE/RI
• Sets out the rules
• Illustrates the rules using cases
• RA
• Case-comparison method (Memo II)
• Rule-based Analysis with in-text illustration
  (Memo III)

9
Citation

• Smith v. Jones, 138 S.E.2d 902, 905 n. 13 (Ga.
  1990).
• Short Cites
• Smith, 138 S.E.2d at 905.
• 138 S.E.2d at 906.
• Id. at 907.
• Id.

10
Signals

• Gives reader information on weight of authority
• Capitalize if the first signal
• Separate with semicolons unless different types
  of signals

11
General Citation

• Memo Citations
• In text
• Citation sentences
• Appendix 1
• Reporters
• Names of courts
• Abbreviations
• Terminated reporters
• Case Names
• Typeface
• Underscore
• Italics