Customer Reviews

Case Analysis and Fundamentals of Legal Writing

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This book was well worth the money. It provides a wealth of information in clear and concise verbiage. This is a must for anyone interested or working in legal processes. I highly recommend this book.

I started as a litigation paralegal in 1972 and retired in 2004 after 32 years of service and helping to win over 2 billion (yes it is a b) in court judgments. I can tell you without doubt that this is one of the best if not the best book on the market and in history when it comes to explaining how to understand court decisions and legal opinions. A paralegal that reads and studies this book will know more about the meaning of court opinions than 99% of all lawyers. This book is easily worth $15,000 and I am often shocked to see it offered for sale for less than $1,000. If you plan to be a litigation paralegal, buy it today. Of course if you plan to be just an ordinary paralegal (doing bankruptcies, wills, divorces, etc) you do not need this book.

This book along with patience and a good dictionary will guide you in the methodology necessary to navigate your way through, the most complex of legal opinions. As far as the writing goes there are many books on legal writing and most do a good job of teaching you that, what is missing however is how to teach you to gain a clear understanding of what you are writing about, this book stresses on that it is circular, it brings you back to the fundamentals of what makes a good legal argument.

If you are taking a legal research class, learning to write or understand "Internal Opinions", write briefs or just plain improve your legal research skills; this is the book for you.

It goes into intense detail on the steps to reading a case, how to brief a case, and how to write your case analysis, internal memo's etc. If you are planning to go to law school, you may want to read this text book. This is subject matter that is covered in your first year of law school. If you have limited or no experience in reading briefs, then it will come in handy. This book does give a quick introduction to IRAC for the new law student.


The sections on Identifying the case, history, objectives, parties, key facts, theories, holdings, issues, reasoning, etc. are priceless and well worth the cost of the book itself. Additionally, each chapter goes over the rules in such a manner as to introduce you to legal writing in a sensible easy to learn method (if you can refer to legal writing as ever being "easy"). The best part of this book is that it gives you the basis to write persuasive papers that are not full of useless legal argot that would offend the intelligence of the legal reader. It is to the point.

I should point out that it has helped me be at the top of my legal classes by giving me the basis from which to organize, write and present my papers. I recommend it as a good source to build from.

I received the book within less than a week after I ordered it. Book was in the condition stated. Very pleased with the efficient service.

"
NO ONE HAS YET DEVISED A UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED METHOD OF ACQUIRING THE SKILLS OF READING AND APPLYING COURT OPINIONS.
Some take the view that an exposure to thousands of opinions is all that is needed,
at the end of which time the skills somehow emerge.
Others maintain that an extended exploration of jurisprudence and legal process is the only meaningful route to intelligent reading and application.
Both positions have considerable merit.
This book,
however,
starts with the assumption that much can be learned about opinions and their jurisprudential context before confronting thousands of them in the reporters and casebooks.....
"
[from the book of the preface]