Article: Read the opinion all the way through before beginning your brief to get a basic understanding of what happened, how the case got to the particular Court, and what the Court ruled. Make note of the plaintiffs and defendants, as well as whether it was a criminal or a civil suit. If one citizen has taken another to court, then it is a civil suit. If the government is seeking prosecution, it is a criminal case. The name of the case (e.g., Roe v. Wade) and the full citation should be first in any case brief. The citation includes the date, and information about the court(s) that the case passed through. Franks v. Delaware, Supreme Court of the United States, 1978, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S. Ct. 2674, 57 L. ed. 667 is an example of a title and citation. Be sure that your citation includes the year of the decision and the Court that rendered it. When a case is decided in trial court, the loser often has the right to appeal the decision to a higher court, called the appellate court. If this is the case, the loser from the original trial who is filing an appeal will be known as the Appellant in your brief and the winner from the trial will be known as appellee. If the loser does not have this right, because the appeal fails in the appellate court, and a request for appeal is denied by the Supreme Court, then a writ of certiorari is filed. This requests a hearing so that the lawyers can state their case as to why it should be reopened. In this case, the filer of the writ is known as the petitioner and the person who must respond to that petition is the respondent. Which Court decided what? Determine which party appealed the ruling. Say the Minnesota Superior Court upheld the search of a Defendants car and then the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, which upheld the trial Court's ruling. The defendant then appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where the case stands partially on the argument presented in your brief.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Read the case. Title the brief. Determine whether the brief is for an appeal or a petition for certiorari. Learn the procedural history of the case.