Turtles' Lair

I. When reading a statute, consider “briefing” it.

Statutes or similar codified rules of law, like the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the Restatements of Law, should be analyzed when confronted.

Statutes are often broken down into sections and subsections. One subsection may contain several elements.

Break statutes down into readily understandable sections to see statutes’ different “tests,” components, and exceptions. A “brief” of a statute need not contain any particular section headings (as in a case brief); rather, it should track and organize the statute’s sections in an easy to understand way.

( Read more... )