Free Case Brief Templates

Allow me to share with you these Free Case Brief Templates in MS Word and PDF format to help draft your Free Case Brief Templates. You can also download our Creative Brief Templates and Job Description Templates.

This is not to say that a law student should ignore other forms of writing, but rather that if you need assistance in researching and writing your brief, then consider using a template. This is not a requirement for passing the state bar exam, but it can help to make sure that your brief is error-free and prepared properly.

These templates are created to assist law firms in their case preparations. They include most of the fields that you may expect, including references and a table of contents.

What to Include in a Case Brief?

Citation:

The first field, Citation, is a list of all the sources used in support of your brief. It should include the full names of all the authors or the person or institution giving the opinion, together with a citation citing these sources.

References:

The second field, References, would list the sources used by other people. It is particularly important to use sources cited by others as an illustration of the quality of your research.

The third field, Table of Contents, may be subdivided into chapters, subchapters, headings, notes, appendices, and page references. Each chapter should contain a concise overview of the whole case, together with footnotes, the author’s name, the references page, and the date. This is useful when drafting a brief for a client. Footnotes serve as additional support when citing various facts in your legal documents.

Cite Court Record Sources:

Citing Court Record Sources is an extremely important part of legal writing. While browsing through a case citation, it is important to be able to know where to find a particular matter. This would make referencing much easier, and would also help in case you need to show a Court record source that is not included in your citation. In case you cannot find such an item in your citation, it would help to contact the clerk’s office or the court for information regarding the record.

Court Report:

A fourth field is the Court Report, which includes a lot of information related to the case brief itself. Illustrative examples include the background of parties, schedule of events, list of exhibits, the full text of pleadings, conclusions, opinions, concurrences, and order. All of this could be found in a separate document filed by the attorneys representing the opposing sides in the case. While Court Reports are often very detailed, they can be very long if you wish to elaborate and use a lot of detail. This would make writing the same case brief a lot easier.

Digest of Court Materials:

Fifthly, a Digest of Court Materials is the sixth field to be mentioned. Such a digest can serve as a ready list to aid in searching for specific factual information. It lists the case summary, list of exhibits, arguments, briefs, transcriptions, supplemental pleadings, decisions, opinions, and order of appeals. It also lists the names of the parties involved and their addresses, along with links to their cases. A Digest can make it much easier to access all the pertinent facts needed to support your brief.

Finally, you may want to consider using Case Brief Templates to create a simple layout and outline for your brief. Creating an effective outline will make your writing process faster and more efficient, as well as make it easier to review and edit later on. With a well-constructed outline, it will be easier to make sure that all the various facts and arguments that should be included in your brief are organized and placed in the appropriate paragraphs.

These cases brief templates are just some of the many different types and styles that a law student can utilize to construct their legal brief. While you can certainly spend weeks or months thinking about what facts and arguments would make your brief the best one possible, the best way to ensure your brief is the most effective, and that it is error-free, is to make sure you use templates that were designed to assist law students in their research.