Question: Please choose a case from your reading in your textbook to brief.

However, DO NOT BRIEF WHAT IS INSIDE THE TEXTBOOK!!!! You must obtain the real estate case you pick from our textbook from inside LexisNexis!!!!

Then prepare a 1-2 page paper, in 12pt Times New Roman font, single spaced, with 1" margins following the criteria in the announcements and below. There are also several documents on how to brief a case attached.

Your brief must be structured with following headings in bold face as follows:

CASE NAME AND CITATION: As a header on the first page of your brief, you should state the name of the case, identify each party's role in the case, and give the full Bluebook style citation to the case.

PARTIES: Who are the parties?

FACTS: Who did what to whom? Include all facts the court considered significant. Summarize in your own words. DO NOT cut and paste from the opinion.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY: Who is asking the court to do what? How did the case procedurally get before this court?

ISSUE(S): What question or questions did the court have to answer in order to make their decision? Your issue(s) should be stated in the form of a question. Make sure you address ALL the issues in the case.

HOLDING: Which way did the court answer the questions posed in the issues? What did they decide?

REASONING: Why did the court decide the case the way it did? What legal standard did they use or establish? What prior cases did the Court rely upon and why?

DECISION: This section gives the Judgment rendered by the court. Describe the final disposition of the case. Did the court affirm the lower court's decision, reverse it, and/or remand it for additional proceedings?

COMMENTS: Is there anything else that should be mentioned about this case? Is it a "landmark" case? Was the court "divided"? Were there any weaknesses/discrepancies in the court's opinions? What were your personal thoughts on the case?

Legal case names should be done in standard "Blue Book" format. Example: York v. Smith, 65 U.S. 294 (1995). For more information on case brief format see "How to Brief a Case" in the Case Brief folder in the Student Resources. There is also a model case brief in the case of Delahanty v. Hinckley that you should review. I want the brief to be in your own words, so do NOT include long quotes from the opinion itself. Your brief should be approximately 2 pages in length. The majority of the citations will be inside the Reasoning section.

***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.