Paralegals: Books For and About Paralegals Written by or with Bill Statsky

Case Analysis and Fundamentals of Legal Writing, 4th Edition

Table of Contents

Information on this Book

                                     Table of Contents

HOW TO BRIEF AN OPINION

• Introduction to Court Opinions and the Legal System
• Introduction to Briefing
• Identifying the Parties
• Identifying the Objectives and Theories of the Parties
• Identifying the History of the litigation
• Introduction to the Identification of Key Facts
• Identifying Issues and Holdings
• Identifying Reasoning
• Dictum, Disposition, and Commentary on the Opinion
• Fact Comparison in the Application of Case Law: Fact Similarities, Fact Differences, and Fact Gaps

THE APPLICATION OF COURT OPINIONS

• Fact Comparison in the application of Case Law: Fact Similarities, Fact Differences, and Fact Gaps
• Rule-of-Law Comparison
• Factors Determining the Length and Comprehensiveness of Case Analysis
• Primary and Secondary Authority: Their Use and Abuse in Legal Writing
• Using and Abusing Legislative History in Legal Writing
• Writing the Memorandum of Law
• Letter Writing and Case Analysis
• The Appellate Brief
• Clarity in Legal Writing

APPENDIX

• Overview of Civil and Criminal Litigation
• Citations in Legal Writing
• Quotation Marks, Brackets, and Ellipsis Dots
• Usage Rules and Guidelines: From A to Z
• Proofreader’s marks