Chapter 1: How to Read a Case

[Erin Lain]

Comment 1: “The backbone of the Socratic Method is casebook reading”

(Page 1) Law school can be summed up in these few lines:

You read assigned cases, you extract from those cases the rule (you do
this both on your own, and in class), you learn how to apply that rule
to new facts, at the end of the semester you are tested on your new
found skill of applying the rules to new facts. Sounds easy,
right? ;)

I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t realize that the above statement
was what we were trying to accomplish until the middle of my first
semester. If I had, I would have saved a lot of time, and been more
successful in studying.

Now that you know what you’re supposed to be doing in law school, you
can more effectively read cases, for what you need.



Comment 2: Besides the ultimate rule, what else should you look for in
a case?

(Page 2- 12) The book does an excellent job of telling you where cases
come from, including the structure of the U.S. court systems, and
procedure. You may ask, “Wait, I thought we were looking for rules,
when we are reading cases” (like the one below):

An owner may not protect personal property in an unoccupied boarded-up
farm house against trespassers and thieves by a spring gun capable of
inflicting death or serious injury, and if he or she does, they can be
held liable. – Katco v. Briney (this is the case you are assigned to
read for orientation)

However, in class the professor will not likely jump to the ultimate
rule in a case (that would be too easy). They may ask you: what court
was this case decided in? Who is suing whom? What was the reasoning
behind the dissenting opinion? Your professor is asking these
questions for a reason, and I think it is helpful to understand why.
Below is a quick list of why a professor is asking you about
something, other than the ultimate rule.

1. What court was the case decided in? You need to know what court a
case was decided in to know how much weight it has. For example, a
U.S. Supreme Court decision is going to give precedent to all federal
courts, and maybe state courts, depending on the question that the
Court is considering. A State Supreme Court decision will affect all
decisions within that state, but the U.S. Supreme Court does not have
to follow what a State Supreme Court decides.

2. Who is suing whom (who is the plaintiff/who is the defendant)? It
is important to know the difference, not only for the outcome, but
also for a better understanding of how our legal system works. It
makes a big difference if Katko had to pay Briney for damages, rather
than the other way around. An easy way to keep everyone straight is to
create a diagram while reading a case.

3. What is the reasoning of the concurring/dissenting opinion? It is
important to know how others might interpret the law when applied to
the facts, and either reaches the same conclusion, or a different one.
When you can understand all of the opinions you fine-tune your “legal
reasoning” skills, and can apply different rules to different facts
(the whole goal of law school!!!!).

Question:

Go to the Katco v. Briney case on the Drake Law website. What is the
easiest way to determine what court this decision was decided in?



Comment 3: Deciding How to Read Your Case Book:
(Page 12-14) There are two things I want to mention about this section
of the chapter:

1. Read actively: It really stinks when you’ve been reading for half
an hour and you realize you’ve retained NOTHING. You might as well
have not read! If you get to the point where you are just staring at
the page, take a break, go for a walk or watch a TV show and then come
back. All of the pointers the authors give are very helpful too.

2. Beware of highlighters: I guarantee, if all you do to prep for
class is highlight passages, when you get called on, the only thing
you will see is what is highlighted. It’s like the rest of the page
melts away. So, be careful what you highlight, and make sure you have
other notes written. When you get called on, and your stomach does
five flips, and you think you’re going to pass out, you can at least
read some of your notes.

3. Look up words that you don’t understand. It is the professors’
favorite thing to ask you to define big words like, Subpoena.