Legal reasoning and legal writing / Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Professor of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Ellie Margolis, Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Jack E. Feinberg '57 Professor of Litigation, Temple University Beasley School of Law.
2017
KF250 .N48 2017 (Map It)
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Title
Legal reasoning and legal writing / Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Professor of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Ellie Margolis, Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Jack E. Feinberg '57 Professor of Litigation, Temple University Beasley School of Law.
Published
New York : Wolters Kluwer, [2017]
Call Number
KF250 .N48 2017
Edition
Eighth edition.
ISBN
9781454886525 paperback
1454886528 paperback
1454886528 paperback
Description
xxviii, 453 pages ; 26 cm.
System Control No.
(OCoLC)967791395
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Series
Record Appears in
Gift
Purchased from the income of the Edith L. Fisch Fund
Added Author
Gift
The Arthur W. Diamond Law Library
Purchased from the income of the Edith L. Fisch Fund
Table of Contents
Preface
xxv
Acknowledgments
xxvii
I.
Introduction To Law
1
1.
Legal Writing and Law
3
1.1.
Legal Writing Is Decisional Writing
3
1.2.
Writing Skills Can Profoundly Affect a Lawyer's Career
3
1.3.
Where Law Comes From
4
1.4.
Common Law
5
1.5.
Law's Vocabulary
6
2.
Rule-Based Reasoning
9
2.1.
Inner Structure of a Rule
9
2.2.
Organizing the Application of a Rule
17
2.3.
Some Things to Be Careful About with Rules
18
2.4.
Causes of Action and Affirmative Defenses
19
Exercise: Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
21
3.
Issues, Facts, Precedents, and Statutes
23
3.1.
Precedent's Anatomy
23
Exercise I: Dissecting the Text of Roberson v. Rochester Folding Box Co.
25
3.2.
Interdependence of Facts, Issues, and Rules
31
Exercise II: Analyzing the Meaning of Roberson v. Rochester Folding Box Co.
33
3.3.
Anatomy of a Statute
33
Exercise III: Analyzing the Meaning of 50 and 51 of the New York Civil Rights Law
34
3.4.
How Statutes and the Common Law Interact
34
II.
Introduction To Legal Writing
37
4.
Predictive Writing
39
4.1.
How Predictive Writing Differs from Persuasive Writing
39
4.2.
Documents Lawyers Write
40
4.3.
How to Predict 40 Exercise Nansen and Byrd
46
5.
Inside the Writing Process
49
5.1.
Product and Process
49
5.2.
Five Phases of Writing
50
5.3.
Planning the Work
50
5.4.
Researching and Analyzing
51
5.5.
Organizing Raw Materials into an Outline
52
5.6.
Producing a First Draft
53
5.7.
Rewriting
53
5.8.
Polishing
55
6.
More About Writing
57
6.1.
Writing and Thinking Are One Process
57
6.2.
Your Readers
58
6.3.
Voice
58
6.4.
Overcoming Writer's Block
59
6.5.
Plagiarism
60
6.6.
Professional Tone
61
6.7.
For All Writers - Even the Famous Ones - Writing Is Very Hard Work
62
6.8.
Don't Imitate Older Judicial Writing, Even If You Find It in Casebooks
63
III.
General Analytical Skills
65
7.
Selecting Authority
67
7.1.
Why Authority Matters
67
7.2.
How Courts Are Organized
68
7.2.1.
State Courts
69
7.2.2.
Federal Courts
69
7.3.
Types of Authority
70
7.3.1.
Primary Authority
70
7.3.2.
Secondary Authority
71
7.4.
Hierarchy of Authority
72
7.5.
How to Use Nonmandatory Precedent and Secondary Authority to Fill a Gap in Local Law
73
7.5.1.
Laying the Foundation
74
7.5.2.
Filling the Gap
75
7.6.
How Courts Use Dicta
76
7.7.
Nonprecedential Opinions
77
Exercise: The Hierarchy of Authority
78
8.
Working with Statutes
81
8.1.
Five Tools of Statutory Interpretation
81
8.2.
Statute's Words
82
8.3.
Statute's Context
83
8.4.
Canons of Statutory Construction
83
8.5.
Interpretations from Nonmandatory Authority
84
8.6.
Legislative History
84
8.7.
Example of Statutory Interpretation at Work
85
8.8.
How to Present Statutory Analysis in Writing
91
9.
Working with Precedent
93
9.1.
Eight Tools for Working with Precedent
93
9.2.
Synthesis
94
9.3.
Determining Policy from Precedent
94
9.4.
Analogizing and Distinguishing
95
9.5.
Testing for Realism
95
9.6.
Example of the Precedent Skills at Work
96
9.6.1.
Client's Story
96
9.6.2.
Four Precedents
97
9.6.3.
Using the Precedent Analysis Tools
101
Exercise: Duress
104
10.
Working with Facts
105
10.1.
What Is a Fact?
105
10.2.
Identifying Determinative Facts
107
10.3.
Building Inferences from Facts
107
10.4.
Identifying Hidden and Unsupportable Factual Assumptions
109
Exercise: The Menu at the Courthouse Cafe
111
IV.
Organizing Proof Of A Conclusion Of Law
113
11.
Paradigm for Organizing Proof of a Conclusion of Law
115
11.1.
Why We Need to Organize Proof of a Conclusion of Law
115
11.2.
Paradigm for Structuring Proof
116
11.3.
Why Readers Prefer This Type of Organization
119
11.4.
Varying the Paradigm Formula to Suit Your Needs
120
11.4.1.
Varying the Sequence
120
11.4.2.
Varying the Depth
120
11.4.3.
Combining Separately Structured Analyses
121
Exercise: Changing Planes in Little Rock
121
12.
Varying the Depth of Rule Proof and Rule Application
125
12.1.
Introduction
125
12.2.
Conclusory Explanations
126
12.3.
Substantiating Explanations
127
12.4.
Comprehensive Explanations
127
12.5.
Cryptic Explanations
130
Exercise: Punitive Damages and Bedbugs
130
13.
Combining Proofs of Separate Conclusions of Law
135
13.1.
Introduction
135
13.2.
How to Organize Where More Than One Element Is at Issue
135
13.3.
How to Organize Where More Than One Claim or Defense Is at Issue
138
13.4.
How to Organize Alternative Ways of Proving a Single Conclusion
139
13.5.
How to Organize When You're Writing About Separate but Related Issues
139
13.6.
How to Start Working with Multi-Issue Situations
140
14.
Working with the Paradigm
143
14.1.
Using the Paradigm Formula to Outline and to Begin Your First Draft
143
14.2.
Rewriting: How to Test Your Writing for Effective Organization
145
Exercise: Teddy Washburn's Gun
148
V.
Predictive Analysis Documents
153
15.
Interviewing the Client
155
15.1.
Clients and Lawyers
155
15.2.
Interview
156
15.2.1.
Learning What the Client Knows
156
15.2.2.
Questions
157
15.2.3.
Listening and Talking
158
15.2.4.
How to Conclude
158
16.
Office Memoranda
159
16.1.
Office Memorandum Format
159
16.2.
Writing an Office Memo
164
16.3.
How to Test Your Writing for Predictiveness
165
17.
Email Communication
167
17.1.
Email Pitfalls
167
17.2.
Email and Confidentiality Problems
169
17.3.
Professional Tone and Appearance
170
17.3.1.
Keeping It Professional
170
17.3.2.
Making the Email Easy to Read
172
17.4.
Communicating Legal Analysis in an Email Memo
172
17.5.
How to Test Your Emails for Professional Effectiveness
174
18.
Oral Presentations to Your Supervising Lawyer
177
18.1.
Preparing
178
18.1.1.
Getting the Assignment
178
18.1.2.
Researching
178
18.1.3.
Writing Out Your Analysis
178
18.1.4.
Whittling Down the Analysis to the Initial Summary
179
18.2.
Questions from Your Supervisor During the Meeting
179
18.3.
Typical Questions
181
18.4.
Most Essential Points
182
18.5.
Mistakes to Avoid
182
19.
Client Advice Letters
183
19.1.
Advice in Writing
183
19.2.
Style and Tone in a Client Advice Letter
184
19.3.
How to Organize a Client Advice Letter
184
VI.
General Writing Skills
189
20.
Paragraphing
191
20.1.
How Paragraphing Reveals Your Organization
191
20.2.
Probative Paragraphs and Descriptive Paragraphs
192
20.3.
Thesis Sentences, Topic Sentences, and Transition Sentences
193
20.4.
Two Most Common Ways of Botching a Paragraph's Beginning
194
20.5.
How to Test Your Writing for Effective Paragraphing
196
Exercise I: The First Weeks of Law School (Probative and Descriptive Paragraphs)
198
Exercise II: Escape from Prison (Paragraph Unity, Coherence, and Length)
199
21.
Effective Style
201
21.1.
Clarity and Vividness
201
21.2.
Conciseness
203
21.3.
Forcefulness
205
21.4.
Punctuation and Other Rules of Grammar
208
21.5.
How to Test Your Writing for Effective Style
209
Exercise: Kalmar's Driveway
219
22.
Quotations
221
22.1.
Quotation Format
221
22.2.
How to Test Your Writing for Effective Use of Quotations
223
Exercise: The First Amendment
227
VII.
Shift To Persuasion
229
23.
Developing a Persuasive Theory
231
23.1.
Strategic Thinking
231
23.2.
Theories: Of the Case, of the Motion, of the Appeal
232
23.3.
Developing a Theory
233
23.4.
Power of Stories to Grip and Involve a Writer's Audience
235
23.5.
Imagery in Theory Development
236
23.6.
Finding and Developing the Story
237
23.7.
How to Evaluate Your Theory
238
Exercise: Escape from Prison? (Developing a Theory)
240
24.
Developing Persuasive Arguments
245
24.1.
What Is an Argument?
245
24.2.
What Judges Expect from Written Argumentation
247
24.3.
How to Evaluate Your Arguments
247
24.4.
Argumentation Ethics
261
24.5.
How to Handle Adverse Authority and Arguments
262
25.
Motion Memoranda
265
25.1.
Motion Memorandum Format
265
25.2.
Writing a Motion Memorandum
268
26.
Point Headings and Subheadings
269
26.1.
How Points and Headings Work
269
26.2.
How to Evaluate Your Headings and Subheadings for Effectiveness
272
27.
Telling Your Client's Story in a Statement of the Case (or Facts)
279
27.1.
What Happens in a Statement of the Case (or Statement of the Facts)
279
27.2.
How to Evaluate Your Storytelling in a Statement of the Case (or Statement of the Facts)
283
27.3.
Story Ethics
288
27.4.
Record
289
Exercise I: Topical Organization v. Chronological Organization
290
Exercise II: Escape from Prison? (Rewriting Fact Statements)
290
28.
Handling the Procedural Posture
293
28.1.
Why Procedural Postures Matter
293
28.2.
Types of Procedural Postures
293
28.2.1.
Motions Challenging the Quality of a Party's Allegations
294
28.2.2.
Motions Challenging Other Aspects of the Way in Which the Litigation Began
295
28.2.3.
Motions Challenging the Quality of the Party's Evidence
295
28.2.4.
Miscellaneous Case Management Motions
297
28.2.5.
Appeal
297
28.3.
Writing in a Procedural Posture
298
28.4.
Researching to Account for Your Case's Procedural Posture
300
VIII.
Appellate Briefs
303
29.
Appellate Practice
305
29.1.
Introduction to Appeals
305
29.2.
What Happens During an Appeal
306
29.3.
Roles of the Brief and of Oral Argument
307
29.4.
Limitations on Appellate Review
308
30.
Appellate Briefs
311
30.1.
Appellate Brief Format
311
30.2.
How Judges Read Appellate Briefs
315
31.
Writing the Appellate Brief
317
31.1.
Developing a Theory of the Appeal
317
31.2.
Process of Writing a Brief
318
31.3.
Handling the Standard of Review and the Procedural Posture Below
320
31.4.
Making Policy Arguments in an Appellate Brief
325
32.
Questions Presented
327
32.1.
Introduction
327
32.2.
Four Ways of Structuring a Question Presented
328
32.3.
Writing an Effective Question Presented
330
32.4.
How to Evaluate Your Questions Presented for Persuasiveness
331
Exercise: G.G. v. Gloucester County School
335
IX.
Into The Courtroom
339
33.
Oral Argument
341
33.1.
Your Three Goals at Oral Argument
341
33.2.
Structure of an Oral Argument
342
33.3.
Questions from the Bench
345
33.4.
Delivery, Affect, and Style
347
33.5.
Formalities and Customs of the Courtroom
349
33.6.
Preparation for Oral Argument
350
33.7.
State v. Dobbs and Zachrisson: An Oral Argument Dissected
351
Appendices
363
A.
Statute Analysis Exercises
365
B.
Precedent Analysis Exercise
377
C.
Sample Office Memorandum
385
D.
Sample Email Memo
393
E.
Sample Client Advice Letter
397
F.
Sample Motion Memorandum
401
G.
Excerpts from Appellant's Fourth Circuit Brief in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Bd.
411
H.
Excerpts from Appellee's Fourth Circuit Brief in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Bd.
431
Index
449