Overview
First-year law students are often handed long appellate opinions and asked to reduce them to a page. Without a method, briefs turn into retellings of the facts or copies of the headnote. Tutors and professors want something different: the legally material facts, the precise question the court answered, the holding, the reasoning, and your sense of how the case fits with others.
We coach you through that process using the cases on your syllabus. Sessions and written feedback cover how to read a judgment (including dissents and concurrences), how to phrase issues as questions, how to extract the ratio decidendi, and how to turn briefs into the IRAC-style analysis used in problem questions, memos and exams.
This is educational support for your legal studies. We do not give legal advice about real situations, and your course materials, professor's instructions and the primary sources themselves are the authority.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- First-year law students (JD, LLB or equivalent) learning to brief cases for class
- Students in paralegal, criminology, business law or legal studies courses
- LLM students trained in a civil law system who are new to common law case method
- Students preparing case notes or case comments as assessed coursework
- Anyone who wants to practice IRAC-structured answers for problem questions or exams
Common problems we help with
- Your briefs are long summaries and you cannot find the rule when you need it
- You are unsure what counts as the holding or ratio versus remarks made in passing
- Problem-question answers get feedback such as "apply the law to the facts" or "conclusory"
- You are confused about when to use IRAC, CREAC or another structure your writing program teaches
- Citation format (Bluebook, OSCOLA, AGLC or McGill) is costing you marks
- You are studying in a second language and legal English slows down your reading
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Coaching on reading judgments: procedural history, majority, concurrences and dissents
- Case brief structure: facts, procedural posture, issue(s), holding, reasoning, disposition and notes
- Distinguishing ratio decidendi from obiter dicta, and the material facts that shape the ratio
- Using IRAC, FIRAC, CRAC or CREAC for problem questions, memos and exam practice
- Synthesizing several cases into a rule statement and spotting how later cases distinguished or followed a precedent
- Feedback on case notes and case comments: critique, significance and context
- Citation guidance for the style you use, such as the Bluebook, OSCOLA, AGLC or McGill Guide
- Legal English support for students writing in an additional language
- Practice hypotheticals with feedback on your own IRAC answers
Not included
- Legal advice on real disputes, contracts, immigration or criminal matters; we provide educational support only
- Writing briefs, memos, moot submissions or assessed answers for you to submit
- Sitting or completing exams, including take-home exams, on your behalf
- Representation or advocacy of any kind
What you receive
- Case briefing method sheet
- A one-page method adapted to your course, with prompts for each element of the brief and space for your own notes.
- Feedback on your briefs
- Comments on a set of your briefs showing where issues are too broad, facts not material, or the holding and ratio blurred.
- IRAC answer feedback
- Line-level comments on practice or draft problem answers, focused on rule statements, application to facts and counterarguments.
- Citation check
- A review of footnotes or citations against your required guide, with explanations of recurring errors.
- Coaching sessions
- Live sessions working through a judgment together or practicing oral case summaries for class.
How it works
Tell us your course and jurisdiction
Share your syllabus, the cases you are briefing, your writing program's preferred structure and citation guide.
Model the method
We work through one case with you, showing how to locate each element and why it matters.
You brief, we comment
You brief further cases or draft a problem answer. We return detailed feedback.
Practice application
We set or use your hypotheticals so you can practice turning briefs into IRAC analysis under time limits if you wish.
Structures and concepts we coach
- IRAC
- Issue, rule, application, conclusion. The default structure for objective legal analysis in memos and exam answers.
- FIRAC
- Adds facts at the start. Common for case briefs, where the material facts frame the issue.
- CRAC and CREAC
- Conclusion first, then rule, rule explanation (in CREAC), application and conclusion. Often taught for persuasive writing and legal memos in US legal writing programs.
- Ratio decidendi and obiter dicta
- The ratio is the legal principle necessary to the decision on the material facts, which binds lower courts under stare decisis; obiter comments are persuasive only.
- Holding and disposition
- The holding answers the issue; the disposition (affirmed, reversed, remanded, allowed, dismissed) is what the court ordered.
- Case synthesis
- Combining several cases into a single rule statement and showing how they are consistent or where they diverge.
- Citation guides
- The Bluebook (22nd edition, 2025) in the US, OSCOLA in the UK (5th edition published in 2026), AGLC in Australia and the McGill Guide in Canada. Use the edition your course requires.
What goes into a strong case brief
A brief should let you answer a cold call or revise for an exam in two minutes. Each element does a specific job, and keeping them separate is what makes briefs useful months later.
- Citation and court: which court decided it matters for precedential weight
- Material facts: only those that affected the outcome, not the whole story
- Procedural history: how the case reached this court and who is appealing
- Issue: a precise yes/no question joining the legal rule and key facts
- Holding: the court's answer to that question
- Reasoning: the steps, policy arguments and authorities the court relied on
- Concurrences and dissents: where and why other judges disagreed
- Your notes: how the case fits the course topic and related cases
Ratio versus obiter: finding what the case stands for
Judgments rarely label their ratio. Finding it means asking which reasoning was necessary to decide the case on its material facts. Broader statements of principle, hypotheticals and remarks about issues the court did not need to decide are obiter dicta: they can be influential, but they do not bind. Different judges may give different reasons for the same result, which complicates things in multi-judge appellate courts.
We practice this with the cases on your syllabus, including how later courts have characterized the ratio, because a precedent often means what subsequent cases say it means.
From brief to problem answer
Briefing teaches you rules; problem questions test whether you can use them. The most common weakness we see is an answer that states the rule correctly and then jumps to a conclusion. Application means pairing specific facts in the hypothetical with the elements of the rule, drawing analogies to and distinctions from decided cases, and dealing with the strongest counterargument. We give feedback that points to exactly where your analysis skipped a step.
Common law, civil law and mixed systems
Case briefing is a common law technique. Students from civil law backgrounds may be used to starting from codes and doctrine, where judicial decisions play a different role. We explain the differences, help you adapt your reading strategy, and support comparative assignments where you need to discuss both approaches.
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative feedback: sharpening an issue statement
A fictional first-year student briefed a fictional appellate negligence case about a slip in a supermarket. The excerpt shows the type of feedback we give; the case is invented.
Student's issue
Was the supermarket negligent?
Our feedback
This is the question for the whole lawsuit, not the one the appellate court answered. The court only addressed whether a store has constructive notice of a spill that existed for about ten minutes during a busy period. Try: "Does a store owner have constructive notice of a hazard on its floor when the hazard existed for approximately ten minutes during peak trading hours and no inspection had occurred in that time?" This version joins the rule (constructive notice) with the material facts (duration, busy period, no inspection).
Knock-on effect
With a precise issue, your holding becomes precise too, and the ratio is easier to state: the duration and circumstances that are sufficient for constructive notice in this jurisdiction.
Invented case for illustration only. This is educational material, not legal advice.
What you’ll need to provide
- Course syllabus, reading list and the cases or judgments you are working on
- Your professor's or writing program's instructions on brief format and structure
- Your draft briefs, case notes or problem answers
- Required citation guide and edition
- Assessment deadlines and whether the work is graded
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Number and length of judgments or briefs involved
- Written feedback only or live coaching sessions
- Whether citation checking is included
- Level of study and complexity of the area of law
- Timeframe before your class or assessment
Turnaround depends on
- Number of briefs or answers to review
- Whether you need feedback before a specific class or exam date
- Access to the full judgments and your course instructions from the start
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
Do you give legal advice?
No. We help students learn legal reasoning and writing for their studies. If you have a real legal problem, consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Should I use IRAC or CREAC?
Use what your professor or legal writing program teaches. IRAC is common for objective analysis and exams; CREAC and CRAC are often preferred for persuasive memos and briefs. The underlying skill of stating, explaining and applying rules is the same.
Can you brief all my cases for the semester?
No. Briefing is how you learn the material, and professors expect you to have done it. We teach the method, work through examples with you and give feedback on your own briefs until you are confident.
Which jurisdictions can you work with?
We can support briefing method and legal writing structure for common law jurisdictions such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia and others, and comparative work involving civil law systems. Substantive law differs by jurisdiction, so we always work from your course materials.
Can you check my Bluebook or OSCOLA citations?
Yes, as part of feedback or on its own. Tell us the edition your course requires, since the Bluebook moved to its 22nd edition in 2025 and OSCOLA published its 5th edition in 2026, and courses update at different times.