A suggested technique for legal problem solving.

From week 3 you will be faced with legal problem solving questions. These questions will not ask
you to “discuss” or “critique” a theoretical question. You will be presented with a factual scenario,
a set of circumstances, that describes the interactions of two or more people that leads to some form
of disagreement over the legal relationship(s) that these facts have created.

It will be your task within the tutorial time limitations to give some kind of advice to one or more of
the people mentioned in the scenario. This practice in the tutorials will have direct beneficial
outcomes to you in preparation for the final examination in MBS502. The final examination in this
unit will be based in large part on similarly structured questions.

The legal problem solving model that is most commonly used is characterised by the acronym
“IRAC”. This stands for “Issue”, “Rule of law”, “Application of rule to facts” and “Conclusion”.

Step 1 – List the legal issues.

The issue in a case is the question of law to be decided by the court. For example, is there a
valid contract between A and B? Stating the issue as a question encourages you to find an
answer. It also acts to keep you focused on answering the question based on the legal
problem and not to become diverted from the issue itself.

Step 2 – State the rule(s) of law applicable to resolving that issue.

This step sets in place the foundation that allows you to more persuasively answer the
question posed in step 1. In this step you will quote and explain, for example, a section of a
statute or a body of case law developed by the courts over a period of time. It will often not
be sufficient to simply mention the section number of a statute. It will almost always be
necessary to use the case law that has been developed to give meaning to some of the words
and phrases used in interpreting that statute.
Alternatively, if the issue raised is one dealt with exclusively by the common law, then
enough information has to be given about the cases cited to determine if the circumstances of
the precedent are sufficiently similar to the question being dealt with that the ratio of the
precedent applies to this question. Therefore, mention of the case name by itself is not
sufficient in this part. You must give a brief statement of the facts followed by an accurate
statement of the principle or rule of law that resulted from the decision in that case. There
will often be conflicting precedents that you will have to state and examine. In this way you
will be able to differentiate the case law to find the precedents that most accurately conform
to the facts presented to you.

Step 3 – Apply the rule(s) of law to the facts presented

This is, arguably, the hardest part of this process. This is where you have to analyse the law
and determine how it applies to the issues raised and the facts presented in the scenario. This
is the step that takes the most practice to achieve competency.
You have cited certain statutes and cases in step 2 for a reason. You have done so because
the facts presented to you have brought to mind the cases and material you have been given
at lectures or you have read in your textbooks. You have already given an outline of the
 facts from the precedents in step 2, you do not need to do so again. What you must do is
provide a link between the facts in the scenario and the cases cited in step 2.
You need to state why the precedent case law that establishes a legal rule or principle should
be applied to the facts presented to you. You must highlight the similarities between the
precedent case and your fact pattern.
Alternatively, you should highlight one or more material differences between the precedent
case and the matter before you in order that you can then differentiate the cases and justify
why a precedent should not apply to your particular circumstances.

Step 4 – Conclusion
Do not forget that in Australia we have an adversarial system of solving legal disputes. This
means that for every legal dispute there are at least two different points of view. This means
that for any given scenario there may be more than one possible conclusion. In this step you
have to select one of these possible conclusions and argue, in a summary form, the case you
have prepared in steps 2 and 3 above.
Whatever you do, you must answer the question posed at step 1.

Acknowledgements

This information sheet is a summary compilation from the information provided by the following
texts;

Brogan M, & Spencer D., “Surviving Law School”, 2005 edition, Oxford University Press,
Melbourne, Australia.

Dworsky AL., “The Little Book on Legal Writing”, 1990, Fred B Rothman & Co., Colorado, USA