What are Case Law Summaries?

Case law summaries are brief, but thorough, outlines of court decisions. Lawyers and law school students use them to understand the main components of a legal case and the reasoning behind the court’s decision. The summaries expand on judicial precedents stemming from judges' rulings rather than on new, legislatively derived laws.

While there is not one right way to compose case law summaries, each summary should contain certain items that explain the facts of the case at hand. A summary should detail all of the proceedings that have occurred in a case up to the point at which it is constructed. The issues of the case should be phrased in the form of "yes" or "no" questions that are answered by the holdings. Precedents and rules of law on which the case rests, as well as the court’s reasoning, should be clearly outlined. Finally, concurring and dissenting opinions should be noted.

Composing case law summaries is time consuming, but they are beneficial to those studying or working in the legal field. They acquaint people with legal reading. They also help legal minds better absorb the facts of cases.

The process of creating case law summaries allows law students and lawyers to identify the most important aspects of a case, disregard superfluous information, and better understand the court’s decisions. The synopsis of a published opinion provides readers with the essence of a court’s legal reasoning. Regular exposure to the core facts of a case helps law students and lawyers better identify key facts in other cases. Being able to identify such “black letter law,” as it is termed, is an important skill needed for the bar exam.

Generating case law summaries can save a person time in the long run because he will both understand the case well and have a synopsis of it to refer to when he is uncertain about an aspect of the decision. Briefing cases will prepare a student for class discussions, because the student will have the information available in a concise format and will have reviewed it several times in the process of creating the summary. The briefing process also helps pupils make connections between related cases. Lastly, for cases reviewed in class, creating case law summaries can serve as expanded class notes, providing students with all of the facts of the case in a familiar format as well as any professor commentary. For these reasons, outlining cases can make law students more successful during law school.