Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell
Authors:
Bahrych, Lynn / Merino, Jeanne / McLellan, Beth
Edition:
5th
Copyright Date:
2017
15 chapters
have results for citation
Chapter 10. Final Steps: Editing, Proofreading, Formatting Citations and Quotations 35 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Know where to place a citation
- . A citation’s format will vary, depending on where it appears in your document. The first time you cite an authority you must use its “full” or “long-form” citation, but after that first full citation, you must choose among various abbreviated formats, sometimes called “short-forms.” Picking the correct short-form depends on the citation’s placement and context.
- Include pincites in most case citations
- Moving the full citation into its own sentence makes the text sentence easier to read. However, embedded citations may be required when propositions in the text rely on different authorities. You may be able to lessen the impact of an embedded citation by using a short-form or by placing the longer citation at the end of the sentence.
- While citations to legal authorities get most of the attention, citations to the record are equally important. When you submit a brief or other document to a court, you must support any facts that you rely on with specific citations to the record in your case. In an in-house document, like a research memorandum, citations that support the facts also memorialize the work you have done
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Chapter 9. Punctuation and Grammar 4 results
- Citation sentences begin with capitals and end with periods. Citation clauses are set off from the rest of the text by a comma. Citations in a “string” are separated from one another by semi-colons. (See the “Blue Book,”
- PUNCTUATION OF CITATIONS
- Use italics for signals used to introduce citations of authority:
- After your draft is polished, you will be ready for the seventh and final step: proofreading. Chapter Ten will help you to proofread citations, quotations, and text, as well as to check appropriate format.
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Chapter 8. Sentence Design 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Avoid the habitual use of a full citation as a sentence opener. You should spare the reader from having to comprehend or skip over a full citation in order to arrive at the point of a sentence. Whenever possible, place a full citation at the end of a sentence, preferably in a separate citation sentence, as demonstrated below:
- The separate sentence citation is permissible if the cited authority supports or contradicts the full statement in the preceding sentence. If the cited authority supports or contradicts only part of the statement in the sentence, the citation must follow that part of the sentence.
- If you wish to emphasize a case name or other authority for which the citation has not yet been given, then the case citation may begin the sentence. For example, 424 U.S. 1 (1976), is the leading case on federal regulation of campaign spending.” Even where a case is being emphasized, however, the complete citation may be placed last to improve readability: “The leading case on federal regulation of campaign spending is
- When deciding whether to place a full citation first or last, ask yourself if the reader will need that information before reading the subject-verb unit. If not, then the citation will be a visual obstacle for the reader.
- Shortened citation forms do not create such an obstacle, for example, “ ‘Outrageous conduct,’ 316 U.S. at 7, was the court’s characterization of the law officer’s treatment of the defendant.” Shortened names of cases or other authorities may serve as helpful transitional elements. The shortened citation or case name may be placed first in the sentence, or it may be placed after the subject as follows:
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Chapter 6. Advisory Writing 4 results
- Your final tasks are to check every quotation and every citation for accuracy and to then format those quotations and citations correctly. For more about quotations and citations, see Chapter Ten.
- You also must prove that the law is what you say it is with legal citations. Follow the practice in your law school or office. See more about using legal authorities and citations in Chapters Two and Ten.
- . Unless you are writing a formal opinion letter, leave out analytical details, like case analysis, and legal citations. For most clients, citations will be indecipherable. Before including
- Include the material facts and enough background facts so your reader can understand what happened. One rule of thumb is to include, or at least refer to, every fact in the facts section that you rely on in the Discussion. Another rule of thumb is to make the facts section complete enough, so that no one will need to duplicate the work you have already done. Follow the practice in your law office or law school classes for supporting the facts with citations.
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Appendix A. Sample Legal Materials and Documents 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Case Name and Citation.
- A formal case brief typically includes these elements: (1) case name and citation; (2) procedural history; (3) facts; (4) issues; (5) holdings; (6) rules; and (7) reasoning. You may add your own notes and observations. Include page numbers to avoid duplicating your efforts at a later stage.
- Rule statement, explanation, illustration, proven with citations to authorities
- has been edited for pedagogical purposes, as have some of the cases cited in the sample documents. Case citations in these documents are formatted according to
- (citations omitted). Although Artie’s confinement was a few minutes shorter, a
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Chapter 2. Legal Analysis 2 results
- Let’s work with an example that illustrates how to understand the law from legal authorities. This example is used throughout this book, including the sample legal documents in Appendix A. Case citations in these documents are formatted according to the s style rules for practitioners. These citations also apply our “local rule” that requires citation for official reporters for California cases.
- In many jurisdictions, opinions that are not published in case reporters are not binding precedent, even if they are authored by a hierarchically superior court. In California, for example, lawyers are not allowed to cite unpublished California cases in briefs. Federal circuit courts designate many opinions as “unpublished,” or non-precedential. If written in 2007 or later, you may cite these opinions in briefs, but court rules may restrict citation of unpublished cases written before 2007. See Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1(a). You should investigate any restrictions on citing unpublished cases before you start your research.
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Chapter 7. Advocacy Writing 3 results
- Construction of the Plan is controlled by its legal text, not by selective citations from a summary booklet.
- The Summary should be a succinct, accurate, and clear condensation of the argument actually made in the body of the brief. It should not merely repeat the headings. Thus, the summary should be more than a mere assertion of your client’s right to win the case. It should present the crux of the argument. It should weave together the strands of argument from the brief and identify the logical relationships between key points. Normally no authorities are discussed, although citations to one or two crucial cases may be included.
- In your brief, state the law in a way that favors your client’s position. The explanation of the law should not sound the same for the different sides of a dispute. Emphasize the part of the rule that’s more favorable to your client and minimize the parts that are unfavorable. Remember that string citations and multiple cases are rarely helpful and that long quotations from cases and other authorities may not be read.
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Index 4 results
Outline 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
- SEVENTH STEP: CHECK CITATIONS, QUOTATIONS, AND FORMAT
- This last step is often done at the last minute, in a rush. Instead, your timeline should allow reasonable time for a careful final check of the accuracy and form of citation, for the accuracy of quotations, and for the appropriate format for your
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Appendix D. Selected Sources 5 results
- CITATIONS AND MECHANICS
- ALWD Guide to Legal Citation
- A legal citation textbook and guide for law students, practitioners, and scholars, designed to be “easy to use, easy to teach from, and easy to learn from . . . .”
- The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation
- practitioners and scholars on the structure, content, and form of legal citations and on many rules of mechanics (e.g., abbreviations, numerals, symbols, italicization, capitalization, and court titles).
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- The positions of emphasis in each of the five paragraphs are well used. None of the highly visual space at the beginning and end of paragraphs is wasted on unimportant phrases or clauses. Although the first paragraph ends with a citation, it is offered as the governing precedent for the case at hand.
- Count the number of sentence interruptions caused by commas, parentheses, brackets, dashes, or internal citations ___.
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Chapter 3. Large-Scale Organization 1 result
- The rule section of the paradigm can be several sentences, several paragraphs, or several pages, depending on the law’s complexity. You may extract or synthesize the law from primary legal authorities, likes statutes, cases, or regulations, and, in some instances, from secondary authorities, like treatises. The rule section may include statements, explanations, and illustrations of rules and legal principles. The rules and principles must be supported with citations to legal authorities. The application section includes your analysis of how the law applies to your matter or case and will take into account the arguments for all the parties to the dispute. Your analysis or argument will typically end with a brief conclusion.
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- Publication Date: February 17th, 2017
- ISBN: 9781634602815
- Subject: Legal Writing
- Series: Nutshells
- Type: Overviews
- Description: This book provides a ten-step guide to clear, precise, and effective legal writing and analysis for both law students and experienced lawyers. It gives the keys to writing legal memoranda and briefs, organizing analysis, crafting clear and concise sentences, using legal language accurately, using grammar and punctuation properly, writing persuasively using classical rhetorical techniques. The book describes a method for analyzing and improving individual writing style includes a sample analysis. It also includes new material on using plain English and new legal documents to illustrate effective writing techniques.
