Academic Success

1. Before you read any case, be sure you know what a case is and how it is written. Read Succeeding in Law School, pp. 41-64 or "How to Read a Case - A Guide for New Law Students" posted on TWEN at the course entitled Academic Success Structured Study Groups; then click on Course Materials.
If you are unsure about the court system, read Succeeding in Law School, pp. 6-22 or check out www.abanet.org and click on Public Resources, About the Law, and read the piece on How Courts Work, including Steps in a Trial. You do not need to memorize this information; as you work through cases, this material will become familiar to you and you will learn what information you do need to memorize.
2. Before you read any case, try to figure out why it is being assigned.
Look at the table of contents of the casebook and the syllabus for any tips regarding what you are to learn from the case.
E.g, your property professors indicate that the first cases assigned have something to do with acquiring property by discovery.
Read the introductory material in the casebook and skim the notes after the case to see if they offer some additional insight into the purpose of reading the case.
Note the date of the case. If very old, it may be providing some sense of the development of the law. This law may or may not be current.
3. Read the case once, all the way through, quickly just to get an idea of what happened. Don't try to understand it at this point.
4. Look up all the words you don't know in a legal dictionary.
5. Re-read the case, word for word, focusing first on the facts of what the parties did that led to the law suit and then the procedure of what happened in court prior to the appeal you are reading about.
6. Now look for the issue of the case, the ruling, reasoning and holding. (See "How to Read a Case - A Guide for New Law Students" in item 1 above and "A Format for Briefing Cases," the handout assigned in Lawyering Skills.)
7. If you think you understand the case, begin to brief it, using the tips learned in Lawyering Skills class for briefing.
8. If you do not think you understand the case, read it once more and then brief it.
9. If you are unsure of how to brief, bring a brief to me during office hours and I will help you figure out what you are doing well and what you need to work on. Soon, you will realize that you want to customize your briefs to your professor, but for now, these tips are universally helpful.
10. You will probably read 2000 cases this year and more in the next two years, and even more in your practice. Be assured that with this much practice and with tips like these, very quickly reading cases will become easier.
Tips taken from Reading Like a Lawyer, by Ruth Ann McKinney, available on reserve.