Reading a Case, step by step
A repeatable method.
- Read the headnoteOrientation only — never cite it as authority.
- Identify the material factsThe facts the decision actually turned on.
- State the legal issueThe question the court had to answer.
- Find the decisionWho won, and on what basis.
- Extract the ratioThe reasoning necessary to that outcome.
- Note dissents and obiterPersuasive, and often the seed of later change.
Educational reference. A case brief that omits the material facts is unusable: the ratio only makes sense against them.
Questions about the Reading a Case poster
- What’s on the Reading a Case poster?
- 6 numbered steps. A repeatable method. Read the headnote — Orientation only — never cite it as authority.; Identify the material facts — The facts the decision actually turned on.; State the legal issue — The question the court had to answer.; Find the decision — Who won, and on what basis.; Extract the ratio — The reasoning necessary to that outcome.; Note dissents and obiter — Persuasive, and often the seed of later change.. Educational reference. A case brief that omits the material facts is unusable: the ratio only makes sense against them.
- Who is the Reading a Case poster for?
- Reading a Case belongs to the Law section rather than to a school year, because law & society is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning legal skills can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Reading a Case poster?
- Find the issue, the decision and the reasoning. Everything else is context. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Reading a Case belongs on the wall where that law & society work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Reading a Case?
- Analysing a Problem, Client Interviewing and Structuring an Answer sit alongside Reading a Case in the Law section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Analysing a ProblemClient InterviewingStructuring an Answer
- Is the Reading a Case poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Reading a Case downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Law section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Reading a Case poster print at?
- Reading a Case is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Reading a Case loses nothing.Printing guide
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