create a case brief

Brief the case of Costanza v. Seinfeld, 693 N.Y.S.2d 897 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County 1999). Your brief may be no longer than 2 pages single-spaced. You must locate the case using Nexis Uni.

Your case brief needs to be in 12 pt, Times New Roman font, with 1″ margins.  It should be single spaced and approximately 2 pages.  It needs to contain proper Bluebook citations inside the text.

NO FOOTNOTES or WORKS CITED/BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS!!!!!!

Case briefs are used to highlight the key information contained within a case for use within the legal community as court cases can be quite lengthy.

When writing case briefs, all information must be properly cited.  Make sure you are not copying and pasting from your source. Most of the material should be paraphrased; quotations should make up no more than 10%  of the brief.  Note: since the purpose to is highlight and summarize key information, merely copying and pasting from the case does not accomplish this goal. You must summarize the facts in your own words, using quotations sparingly.And remember – don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. Additionally – good writing is good writing, whether you are writing a case brief or a research paper. Don’t forget what you already know about writing.  
How to B rief a C ase
Prepared for the L egal Studies Program
A merican Public U niversity System
December 2013
Introduction: A case brief is a concise summary of the significance of a case. It is a bit
like D³ERRNUHSRUW´ but with very special rules! It is a time-honored practice used throughout
the legal profession and law schools. As a teaching tool, the case brief forces the student to
identify and provide a written description of the most important aspects of a case. Legal
precedent, also known as Stare Decisis, is a doctrine which governs much of our legal process.
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rationale underlying it —- that is, how the judges arrived at their decision —- is essential to
the study of law. The case brief serves as a very useful vehicle by means of which to analyze
and understand judicial decisions.
A case brieILVDWRROE\PHDQVRIZKLFKWR³FDSWXUH´RURXWOLQHWKHPRVWLPSRUWDQW
aspects of a case. A case brief is not an invitation to re-write the opinion or to paste together
TXRWHVIURPWKHFRXUW¶VRSLQLRQ7KHEULHIVKRXOGEHZULWWHQLQ\RXURZQZRUGVEDVed on your
understanding of the case. Of courVHVHOHFWTXRWHVRIWKHFRXUW¶V words can be useful, if used
sparingly. A case brief should be concise; it should be no more than 1-2 pages. There are at least
several different methods or models for writing the case brief; these are based on personal
preferences. In the Legal Studies Program, however, the format described here will be used for
all of the case briefs which you are required to write in your courses. By using this uniform
format, you will gain familiarity with the case analysis and brief writing process.
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RSLQLRQV:KHQ\RXZDQWWRXQGHUVWDQGDFRXUW¶VGHFLVLRQLWLVHVVHQWLDOWKDW\RXUHDGWKHHQWLUH
opinion, rather than a mere summary. Therefore, the first step in the brief writing process is
always to thoroughly read the entire case. This includes reading any concurring and dissenting
opinions of members of the court. In this regard, be very sure that you are reading the entire
opinion! In some internet based sources, the Syllabus (headnotes/summary) of the opinion is
presented at one link, the majority opinion is presented at another link, etc. You need to read all
portions of the opinion as all of them are relevant to your analysis of the case. For example, if
there are strong dissenting opinions based on key legal points, this could predict what the court
might decide in the future on similar issues.
1. C ase Name and C itation: As a header on the first page of your brief, you should state
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citation to the case. (See Bluebook resources in the APUS library for more information about
Bluebook format.) It is essential that the reader of your case brief know who initiated the
litigation and who appealed. For example, in the sample case brief of the Delahanty case (see
accompanying materials), Thomas and Jean Delahanty are clearly identified as the plaintiffs
(parties who initiated the litigation) and as appellants (parties who sought appellate review of the
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legal reporter in which the opinion is found, the volume and page on which the case appears, and
the year in which the case was decided.
2. F acts: The Facts section is a short synopsis of the most important facts of the case.
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facts which were analyzed by the court. Although other factual details might be interesting, only
include them if they give the reader tKH³ELJSLFWXUH´RIZKDWWKHFDVHLVDERXW%HVXUHWR
include the nature of the lawsuit and the parties in the lawsuit. The goal in the Facts section is to
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would understand the facts of the case.
3. Procedural H istory: The Procedural History section is a summary of previous
proceedings between the parties from the time the case was initially filed to the present. This is
important because most reported cases are appellate cases in which a previous decision was
rendered in a trial court. It is essential that you understand how the case arrived in the court, the
opinion of which you are briefing. Indeed, in many case brief assignments, you will brief an
Opinion of the United States Supreme Court; in those instances, the case will likely have been in
several different courts previously. ,WLVLPSRUWDQWWKDW\RX³WUDFN´ZKR³ZRQ´DWHDFKOHYHODQG
that you understand that the losing party appeals to the next level of court.
The Delahanty case is an example of a somewhat unusual case, but the unusual nature of
the case is a good illustration of why the Procedural History of the case is so important. The
civil lawsuit was filed by the Delahantys in federal court (United States District Court in the
District of Columbia). Their case was dismissed and they appealed to the next level of federal
court (the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit). That federal
appellate court needed to obtain the view of the court in the applicable local jurisdiction (the
District of Columbia) on a specific legal question. In order to obtain that view, the federal
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about the opinion which was rendered by the local court, the District of Columbia Court of
Appeals.
4. Issue(s): The issue should be a yes/no question which identifies the specific question
the court must decide in order to rule in the case. )RUH[DPSOH³$UHPDQXIDFWXUHUVDQG
distributors of Saturday Night Specials strictly liable for injuries arising from their criminal use
LQWKH’LVWULFWRI&ROXPELD”´ There may be more than one main issue that the court must decide.
If there are multiple issues, the issues should be set forth in a number fRUPDWVXFKDV³,VVXH´
etc.
5. Holding(s):The Holding section succinctly states how the court answered the issues
presented. Typically it includes a yes/no answer followed by the issue presented written in an
answer format. It includes the legal principle relied on by the court. If there are multiple issues,
there must be a corresponding number of holdings.
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6. Reasoning: This is a very important part of the brief. The Reasoning section
describes why and how the court reached its holding in the case. This may include an
application or revision of pre-existing legal principles, policy reasons and/or negative effects
resulting from a different court ruling. If there are both a majority and dissenting opinion issued
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analyses. Likewise, if there is a concurring opinion, a brief description should be included in an
additional subsection. If there are multiple issues, there must be a corresponding number of subsections within the Reasoning section.
7. Decision: This section gives the Judgment rendered by the court. Describe the final
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it for additional proceedings?
8. Comments: Is there anything else that should be mentioned about this case? Is it a
³ODQGPDUN´FDVH in the sense that the court significantly changed the law concerned a particular
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For example, in the Delahanty sample brief, a useful comment would be that the case is a
good example of how appellate courts certify issues to other courts in order to obtain the legal
opinion of the other court on a particular issue.
 
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