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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Case reporters or reports |
Books that contain appellate court decisions. There are official reports and unofficial reports |
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Official reports |
Governmental publication of court opinions |
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Unofficial reporter |
Private publication of court opinion--for example, the regional reporters such as N.E.2d published by West. |
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Case citation |
Information that tells the reader the name of the case, where it can be located, the court that decided it, and the year it was decided. |
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The bluebook |
Gives precise rules as to how case citations are to be written. |
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Appellant or petitioner |
A person who initiates an appeal |
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Appellee or respondent |
The party in a lawsuit against whom an appeal has been filed. |
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Pinpoint cite |
The reference to a particular page within an opinion. |
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Subsequent case history |
Information about what happened procedurally to the litigation after the case cited. Include this information in a citation. |
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Headnote |
Summary of one legal point in a court opinion; written by the editors at West |
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Syllabus |
Summary of a court opinion that appears at the beginning of the case. |
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Sustantive facts |
In a case brief, facts that deal with what happened to the parties before the litigation began. |
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Procedural facts |
In a case brief, facts that relate to what happened procedurally in the lower courts or administrative agencies before the case reached the court issuing the opinion. |
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Disposition |
The result reached in a particular case. |
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Holding |
The new legal principle estabblished by a court opinion. |
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Affirm |
A decision is affirmed when the litigants appeal the trial court decision and the higher court agrees with what the lower court has done. |
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Reverse |
A decision is reversed when the litigants appeal the trial court decision and the higher court disagrees with the decision of a lower court. |
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Dictum |
A statement in a judicial opinion not necessary for the decision of the case. |
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Concurring opinion |
An opinion that agrees with the majority's result but disagrees with the reasoning. |
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Dissenting opinion |
An opinion that disagrees with the majority's decision and reasoning |
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Mandatory authority |
Court discussions from a higher court in the same jurisdiction involving similar facts and law. |
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Persuasive authority |
Court decisions from an equal or a lower court from the same jurisdiction or from a higher court in a different jurisdiction, also includes secondary authority. |
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Analogous cases |
Cases that involve similar facts and rules of law. |
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Distinguishable cases |
Cases that involve different facts and/or rules of law. |
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Issue of first impression |
An issue that the court has never faced before. |
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Landmark decision |
A court opinion that establishes new law in an important area. |
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Overrule |
A decision is overruled when a court in a later case changes the law so that the decision in the earlier case is no longer good law. |
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Rule |
In a case brief, the general legal principle in existence before the case began. |
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Issue |
In a case brief, the rule of law applied to the case's specific facts. |
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Holding |
In a case brief, the court's anser to the issue presented to it; the new legal principle established by a court opinion |
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Narrow holding |
A statement of the court's decision that contains many of the case's specific facts, thereby limiting its future applicability to a narrow range of cases |
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Broad holding |
A statement of the court's decision in which the facts are either omitted or given in very general terms so that it will apply to a wider range of cases |
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Dictum |
A statement in a judicial opinion not necessary for the decision of the case. |
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Judicial review |
The court's power to review statutes to decide whether they conform to the constitution |
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Develop a workable style |
Develop a briefing style that works best for you. |
