How to Brief a Case Using the “IRAC” Method
A case brief, for classroom purposes, is a synopsis or summary of a case. When briefing a case, your goal is to reduce the information from the case into a format that will provide a helpful reference in class and for review. Briefing will help you identify: the problem the court faced (the issue); the relevant law the court used to solve it (the rule); how the court applied the rule to the facts (the application or “analysis”); and the outcome (the conclusion).
The first thing to do before you brief a case is read the case. Do NOT rely on the headnotes. Headnotes are not always correct, and there is no substitute or shortcut for actually reading the entire case.
Your case brief should include the following:
Case Name
This is the title of the case. Use the party’s last names. What is the case citation and the year of the decision?
Facts
Write a brief summary of the facts. Eliminate facts that are not relevant to the court’s analysis.
Procedural History
What court authored the opinion: The United States Supreme Court? The California Court of Appeal? (Hint: Check under the title of the case: the Court and year of the decision will be given). How did the case get to that court? Start with the trial court and work your way up through the appellate courts. For example, “The trial court entered judgment for the plaintiff and the court of appeals reversed the trial court’s decision. This case is now before the Texas Supreme Court.”
Issue
What is the question presented to the court? There will frequently be more than one issue, in which case you should treat each issue separately. What are the parties fighting about, and what are they asking the court to decide? PHRASE YOUR ISSUE AS A QUESTION. For example,
“Did the trial court err in concluding that the confession was not coerced and therefore did not violate the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination?
Decision (Holding):
Describe how the court responds to the issue. If you have properly phrased your issue as a question, this can be a simple “yes” or “no” followed by one of two explanatory sentences. Although a decision will probably discuss many legal rules and authorities, you are only concerned with the “Ultimate” rule(s) pertinent to your issue. For example, in responding to the issue above, one might state:
“Yes. The confession was coerced because it was not voluntary. Therefore, it violated the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination.”
Rule(s):
Determine what is the ultimate rule of law that results from the case?
These rules will be identified and discussed by the court. There may be more than one relevant rule of law in a case. For example,
“A confession is involuntary only if there was official, coercive conduct of such a nature that any statement obtained thereby was unlikely to have been the product of an essentially free and
unconstrained choice by its maker. Determination of a statement's voluntariness is made by examining the totality of the surrounding circumstances.” You need not include citations to the case(s) the court relies upon.
Application/Analysis:
In this section you describe how the court applied the rule(s) to the facts. In other words, the court’s analysis. WHY did the court decide the case the way it did? Resist the temptation to merely repeat what the court said, and instead consider what the words really mean. Summarize the court’s rationale in your own words. If you encounter a word that you do not know, use a dictionary to find its meaning.
Conclusion
What was the final outcome of the case? In one or two sentences, state the court’s
ultimate finding. Was the decision of the lower appellate court reversed? Affirmed?
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