You are just about to start law school. You buy all of your required casebooks [they are about two feet thick-only "slightly" intimidating], and you receive your first assignment. You are simply told, "read the first 100 pages in each book and BRIEF all of the cases!" O.K., you know how to read [hopefully], but what does it mean to "brief" a case? You have heard of "briefcases," but that is something that you carry …showed first 75 words of 1126 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1126 total…write out a summary of every case in advance of class. To put it another way, it is the job of every law student to read all of the cases and to summarize (i.e., brief) every case. It is extremely time-consuming to write briefs. Thus, study time must be budgeted accordingly. Here we will explain the long, hard, tried and true methods of briefing a case. Later we will show you some short cuts.