Interactive Legal Research & Writing Lessons: Objective Writing - Case Synthesis (Voigt)
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Description
This three-lesson module is directed at first-year law students. You will take a deep dive into understanding a single case, will learn to synthesize the rules of law from three additional cases, and will learn how to apply the rules to a hypothetical client’s legal question. The three lessons teach these concepts and skills through a combination of slides, auto-graded questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, short-answer questions (with model answers), and audio explanations.
In Lesson One, you will learn to extract the issues, holdings, reasoning, and rules of law from a single case. You will then apply the rules to a hypothetical in which the client seeks to recover on a common law claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED).
Lesson Two takes you to the next level of case analysis. It first walks you through a more complicated client hypothetical and legal issue than the first lesson. The second lesson teaches how to identify the issues, holdings, and reasoning from three additional cases involving NIED claims. Lesson Two also teaches how to extract express and implied rules from the cases and requires you to consider whether the rules from each individual case resolve the client’s legal question. Each case provides additional insight into the meaning of one disputed element of the client’s NIED claim. As you analyze each case, you should discover new legally relevant facts from the client hypothetical and should be able to reconcile the cases based on the courts’ reasoning.
In Lesson Three, you must synthesize the rules from the four NIED cases you analyzed during the prior two lessons. To start, the lesson covers four key principles for synthesizing accurate and useful rules. Then you must apply those principles by deciding whether the cases, taken together, support each proposed synthesized rule. After each auto-graded question, each audio explanation identifies why the proposed rule either is or is not consistent with the four NIED cases.
In Lesson One, you will learn to extract the issues, holdings, reasoning, and rules of law from a single case. You will then apply the rules to a hypothetical in which the client seeks to recover on a common law claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED).
Lesson Two takes you to the next level of case analysis. It first walks you through a more complicated client hypothetical and legal issue than the first lesson. The second lesson teaches how to identify the issues, holdings, and reasoning from three additional cases involving NIED claims. Lesson Two also teaches how to extract express and implied rules from the cases and requires you to consider whether the rules from each individual case resolve the client’s legal question. Each case provides additional insight into the meaning of one disputed element of the client’s NIED claim. As you analyze each case, you should discover new legally relevant facts from the client hypothetical and should be able to reconcile the cases based on the courts’ reasoning.
In Lesson Three, you must synthesize the rules from the four NIED cases you analyzed during the prior two lessons. To start, the lesson covers four key principles for synthesizing accurate and useful rules. Then you must apply those principles by deciding whether the cases, taken together, support each proposed synthesized rule. After each auto-graded question, each audio explanation identifies why the proposed rule either is or is not consistent with the four NIED cases.