Reading Like a Lawyer - by Prof. Ruth Mckinneyhttp://www.unc.edu/~ramckinn/Documents/AddendumB-BeginningChecklist.pdf
Getting in a Good Reading Groove
Developing new habits takes conscious effort. The best way to develop healthy reading habits in law is to force yourself to think consciously about what you are reading and how you are reading it. This addendum introduces you to a beginning checklist you can reproduce (copies available online at http://www.unc.edu/~ramckinn) and use for the next several weeks as you read cases. This beginning checklist is long – too long to use forever or on every case you are reading. However, as you learn to read law like an expert law student, you should use it on at least one case a day in each of your classes for the first two or three weeks of school.
After you have integrated the questions raised in this checklist into your daily reading habits (so that the questions come up in your mind automatically and you are reading with these questions in the back of your head), you can (and should) shift to the second Checklist (“Focus and Enjoy”) found in Appendix C. That checklist is designed to condense the questions raised in the beginner’s checklist into four succinct and efficient questions that you should ask yourself each and every time you read a case throughout law school. By chunking the questions raised in the first checklist into the broader questions raised in the second, you will be moving from a beginner stage to an expert stage of casebook reading. If you try to use the second checklist (Appendix C) first, it won’t do the same thing for you. Instead, you may find that you miss information altogether (instead of including it automatically) because you won’t have developed the right “reading groove” through practice.
Beginning Case-Reading Checklist
(Developing the Right Reading Habits)
A. Before You Read the Case
My purpose for reading this case today is: __________
I have the following amount of time to complete my reading: _________
I have looked at many of the following external cues:
____ Course Title
____ Table of Contents
____ Course Syllabus
____ Background Reading in Text
____ Section Heading & Sub-heading
____ Running Header
____ Other cases in this cluster
____ Notes & Problems
____ Case Name & Citation
____ Judge’s Name & Stature
I am aware of the following internal cues/thoughts:
____ I have prior knowledge about this area of the law
____ I have prior knowledge about the era or geographical location of decision
____ I have prior knowledge about these facts
____ I have some emotional reactions to this topic or the area or date of decision
I have the following hypothesis about what this case will show and how it will fit in my professor’s overall plan for this course: _____
I am guessing that the following words might be key “magic” words (see Chapter 11) that will characterize rules & principles in this area of the law: ____________
B. As You Read the Case:
____ I marked sections that made no sense and decided whether to figure them out or move on. If I decided to figure them out, I did the following:
___ made an inference from the content
___ looked up a word in a legal dictionary
___ asked a peer, an upperclass student, or my professor
___ reread the section more carefully
___ read ahead to see if there were cues later in the case
___ paraphrased in my own words, using Plain English
___ other
____ I asked questions of the opinion’s author (the judge) and/or responded to thoughts the judge expressed in the opinion.
____ I visualized the operative conflict facts in living color
____ I can explain accurately to a layperson how this case wound through the courts and got here (see Chapter 9).
____ I have modified or affirmed my original hypothesis about this case at various points.
____ I have made up at least one hypothetical to test what I think the rule is in this case.
____ I am still confused about:
____ I feel satisfied about:
____ If there were related “Notes & Problems,” I read them and they caused me to also think about:
C. After Reading the Case:
I believe the main point of reading this case in the context of this course is to learn: _________
The main point this case contributes to my coursework is based on the following broader policy considerations or big-picture rationales (why is this result “fair” or a good idea): _______
If the decision had been mine to make at the time this case was decided, I would:
____ agree
____ disagree
Because:
If the decision were mine to make today (not when the case was decided), I (personally) would:
____ reach a similar result under similar facts
____ reach a different result
Because: _____________
D. After Reading a Cluster of Related Cases and Text:
In addition to the author’s choice of cases themselves, the author’s background information and related Notes & Problems caused me to speculate that the following are common themes in this area of law: __________
The specific issues/factors/elements are the kind of things a judge would consider if faced with a new conflict arising in this area of law: __________
Stated succinctly, the majority rule appears to be: __________
Stated succinctly, alternative rules (if applicable) appear to be: __________
Stated succinctly, the following exceptions or defenses appear to exist to this rule: __________
The big-picture policy/fairness reasons for the development of these rules appears to be: __________
These policy reasons should be balanced against the following potentially conflicting policy/fairness concerns: __________
The key (“magic”) words that hold special meaning (beyond a layperson’s meaning) in this area of law are:__________