| Case law is an integral part of the common law heritage.
People have legal disputes because they cannot agree on:
Trial courts resolve disputes over facts:
Appellate courts resolve disputes over:
Appellate cases report the resolution of the legal dispute. Most law school courses focus on:
Cases are seen as the basic method of determining
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A Case brief is a student's summary of a case.
As a student you should brief cases for several reasons:
| Active Learning | Learning by doing is better than passive learning by merely
reading.
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| Class Participation | Without a short summary a student may find it difficult
to remember the facts and issues of a case.
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| A Tool for Constructing a Study Outline | Briefing provides some help in isolating rules, tests, and standards
for course outline.
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| Exam Preparation | Briefing provides practice in isolating the relevant facts from irrelevant facts and practice framing an issue statement. |
Two basic kind of briefs: book brief and page brief
 | page brief = 1 to 2 page summary |
| book brief = notes in margin of the book |
 | Learning to read cases critically is an important legal skill and book brief is not sufficient in the beginning. |