Legal Writing Notes - 09/26/2013

October 3rd, 2013 Caballes Review

The last paragraph of Caballes contains information that is useful for the reader of our memo. Some of the language in the conclusion is a rewording of previous reasoning, so be careful not to be redundant when reporting reasoning in the FIRAC. You need to organize the analysis in your FIRAC to eliminate redundancies, do not blindly report the reasoning from Caballes. You want to write the analysis in a way that makes the application to our client problem obvious.

Citation: Note that you must apply the Bluebook and citation info below to the assignment due Monday
You know: Long Citation o Use only once Where & When to Cite o Cite to everything that came from a case, therefore, you will cite after almost every sentence of the next assignment except for a few of the sentences in the intro paragraph. New Things to Learn: Short Cite Form o Id. or Id. at pinpoint cite. Use this when you want to cite to the same case that was just cited o Short Name, Volume at pinpoint cite reference. For example, Kyllo, 339 U.S. at 340. Use this form when you cannot use id. b/c there is an intervening citation Capitalization rule o Court standing alone is only capitalized in two instances. When referring to the Court deciding the instant case When referring to the U.S. Supreme Court This applies to the Kyllo and Caballes Court. o When to Capitalize Party Names Only capitalize when referring to the instant case party Remember, Kyllo is not the instant case, it is a precedent case. Thus, In your FIRACS, the parties will not be capitalized But in your introductory paragraphs, Mr. Assay, Defendant will be capitalized.

Common Problems with the FIRACS

Again there are 3 numbers on your sheet. The first number is your score for the F, I and C of the FIRAC report. The second number is a score on your content of the rest of the FIRAC. The third score is how your writing style in your report of the Kyllo analysis impacted an uninformed readers ability to follow. The scores ranged from 1 to 3.

A lot of students missed reporting some important Kyllo analysis

All details must be treated as intimidate details

Legal Writing Notes - 09/26/2013 o Many people reported this but didnt explain why. o The court gave two reasons, you should include these Rejected Arguments o Many people left these out but there are at least 3 or 4 issues that you should report. o When reporting a rejected argument, there are 2 steps: What is the argument? Why was it rejected?

A lot of students had trouble reporting information in a way that would be easy for the uninformed reader to follow:
You need to report in a way that is clear and much easier to read than the court opinion. Generally, everyone did a good job of reducing redundancies. A lawyer evaluates and learns analysis thru logic. In writing logic is made apparent via clear organization Basic English Composition o Topic Sentences Paragraph begins with a topic sentence. The topic sentence should introduce us to the topic you will address and the rest of the paragraph should stick to your topic sentence. If you find yourself straying from the topic sentence, then broaden your topic sentence or put the new info under a different topic o Organizational Scheme Make it apparent to the lawyer. The scheme should stand out. One method to do this is roadmapping. Examples of roadmapping: To begin the analysis you could state In analyzing this issue, the Court focused on three areas, the impact of technological devices on privacy rights, the type of details the devises reveal and the public knowledge of these devices, etc, To transition into rejected argument portion of the analysis report you could state Based on this reasoning, the court rejected three arguments. o o o

ASSIGNMENT THAT IS DUE MONDAY IS BASICALLY TH 1ST HALF OF THE DISCUSSION SECTION FOR THE ZNOSE MEMO
This includes: An introductory paragraph Kyllo FIRAC w/ point sentence Caballes FIRAC with point sentence Synthesized rule deduction Dont forget you will need to incorporate the citation and capitalization rules covered so far. There is a page limit of 7 pages for this assignment Remember there are things to assist you on TWEN, including: UNDER THE EVALUATION SHEET QUICK LINK A checklist (called Rule Explanation Checklist & Evaluation Sheet) An explanation and example of the process of synthesizing a rule

Legal Writing Notes - 09/26/2013 An example of an introductory paragraph to the Discussion section A Note and Abbreviation Key - read thru this to get pointers UNDER THE WRITING SAMPLES QUICK LINK FIRAC Explain w/and example An explanation of how to fix an embedded FIRAC An example of a FIRAC that needed work and then an improved version A list of possible verbs to use in court action phrases A annotated sample Memo w/ one issue like ours P. Thomson will add extra office hours Friday if all appts fill up and you request it. Additionally she will be in the office Sunday late afternoon to answer telephone (352 273-0878) and e-mail questions (If you e-mail her,include your phone number) she will e-mail everyone the time