The Best Way to Write Legal Briefs

If you have a passion for defending the rights of others, studying law might be a life-changing experience. A legal brief is one of the most crucial pieces of court documentation a lawyer will prepare. In law school, students must complete this task, although writing a legal case brief isn’t everyone’s cup of tea since it’s time-consuming, complicated, and overly formal. 

Your ability to communicate effectively with others and put thoughts into writing will be the two primary criteria upon which your success as a legal practitioner is ultimately based. Every successful lawyer has to be able to write clearly and persuasively on legal topics. Thus, if you can write a persuasive legal brief, you can win any matter in court. 

Throughout their careers, lawyers create hundreds of papers for clients, other attorneys, judges, and others. Therefore, a lawyer must have strong writing skills. One of the main points is to identify issues, recite relevant authorities, and craft persuasive legal arguments to compose a compelling brief. Therefore, in this article, you’ll learn practical methods and tips about writing legal briefs in the best possible way. 

What Should Be Included in a Legal Brief?

Each case is different and will need a somewhat different version of this template. Nevertheless, generally speaking, a paper should focus on the most crucial aspects of your case, consisting of no more than 600 words (excluding concurrences and dissents). Therefore, a legal brief includes the following headings:

• Case title
• A list of the individuals involved
• The current stage of litigation
• The examined legal matter at hand
• Case specific evidence
• The rule of law applied
• Your claim
• The conclusion

At first, it may seem not so challenging, but many students need help with this task. Therefore, you can turn to professional legal brief writing services and be confident in an excellent result. You must read and study the record carefully to provide an accurate case description. So, it might be a good idea to ask for expert help. Therefore, you can turn to professional legal brief writing services and be confident in an excellent result. 

The Best Approach to Writing Legal Briefs

Your legal brief has to compel the court to decide in favor of his client’s viewpoint. However, the court will only accept the paper if it follows the proper structure and format. When writing a case brief, consider the following helpful guidelines.

1. Stick to the Right Format

There are several acceptable presentation styles while preparing a legal case. Most of them provide essentially the same details, but others may use different language. There may be variations in the forms used to summarise issues from court to court, but the best practice is to adopt whatever style is most helpful or suitable for your situation.

2. Begin with the Title, Reference, and Author

A case summary may begin with the case’s title, reference, and author. Mention the two contending viewpoints. Petitioners and plaintiffs are listed first, followed by respondents and defendants in a judicial proceeding. Your citation will include the case reporter’s contact information. The writer of a text is called the author.

3. Define the Case Facts

In this primary body of your legal brief, you should lay out the meat of your case and provide evidence supporting your claims. It’s important to remember that quality, not number, is what matters most in your legal practice. Adding relevant and fundamental information is essential for this part.

4. Explain the Rule of Law Applied

The rule of law explains what laws the court relied on to reach its judgment. Even if a legal opinion may draw on more than one principle, you should still be able to summarise the concept in a single phrase here.

5. Justify Your Position and Holding

Here, you may provide the legal justification for a court’s ruling. This section follows the CREAC structure, which consists of a conclusion, rule, explanation, application, and conclusion. 

6. Concurrences and Dissents

If one of the judges hearing the case disagrees with the majority’s ruling, that judge may write a dissenting opinion that’ll be filed alongside the majority’s judgment. A concurring opinion is written when a second judge agrees with the majority judgment but disagrees with the reasons. Then, you may provide a short conclusion.

Conclusion 

As a law student, you’ll spend a lot of time writing legal briefs if you decide to become an attorney. Writing an excellent legal brief is a skill one can hone with time and effort. On the bright side, it can give you plenty of opportunities to practice legal writing. However, depending on your preparation, a legal brief may assist or ruin your case. Therefore, to further your career as an attorney, you should follow the practical pieces of advice given above.