1.5

How to Read a Case

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INTRODUCTION

As you should know by now, a court opinion is also called a case. This section of the manual breaks down the elements of a court opinion, which is law.

CASE LAW: HOW TO READ IT
Basically, a case can be broken down into two areas: The section above the line of demarcation and the actual opinion below the line of demarcation. The items above the line (the title, the syllabus, the headnotes) are basically tools to help analyze and identfy the opinion below the line. The tools above the line are useful, but when quoting a case, only quote the material below the line of demarcation. The opinion.


WHAT IS THE LINE OF DEMARCATION?
It is a simple line that appears below the last headnote. (The heandotes are the short, numbered paragraph summaries of the important aspects of the case.) In the rare event that no line exists, just realize that the Opinion begins after the last headnote.

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ViewPoint

ViewPoint
Click here to see an example of a case from a Reporter.





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Lecture Notes . . .

How to Read Case Law


This becomes more important a bit later when you are given a legal writing assignment and have to read the assigned cases. One suggestion might be to add this to your Favorites list on your browser for later reference. For now, let's discuss a few points. Caption


The caption is the title of the case. It also includes the year the opinion was written and the court that wrote the opinion. Syllabus


This is a short summary of the case. Always look for how the court held. Holding


The "holding" of a case is what the court decided, or the answer the court found. The holding is mentioned at the end of the syllabus, unofficially. To quote the holding, you must locate the holding within the opinion itself, usually at the very end. Headnotes


These short paragraphs are summaries of parts of the case. They are provided by the publisher. The Headnote number (number 1, number 2, number 3, etc.) is important, because it relates to a bracketed number (Headnote Reference Point) in the actual opinion. For instance, if Headnote number 4 is the only point of interest for you, you would look for a bracketed number 4 in the opinion. This is a great tool for a paralegal acting as a researcher. The headnotes allow you to very quickly determine whether a case is worth reading.

Don't confuse Headnote numbers with the Key Number System. The Key Number System is a research tool that relates to West Digests and Westlaw (electronic legal research), which will be discussed later.

Even though the Headnotes are very strong research tools, they are provided by the publisher, and therefore should not be quoted. They are non-authority. Line of Demarcation


Again, this simple line tells the researcher that everything above the line is provided by the publisher and cannot be quoted, and that everything below the line is the word-for-word opinion of the court. The Majority opinion becomes law. If there is a Dissenting opinion, it disagrees with the results of the majority. If there is a concurring opinion, it agrees, but for a different reason than that expressed by the majority.


The Majority opinion may be quoted as primary authority.

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Article

Reading Material
Click here to read an article from the American Bar Association: How to Read a U.S. Supreme Court Opinion