Essay Legal or Factual Issue(s) Addressed by the Court in the Judgment – Report Writing Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

1.Introduction

1.case analysis (750 words)

The present document provides further essential information about each of these assessment tasks. You will be assumed to have read this document and know what it contains. 

REFERENCE IN AGLC (AUSTRALIAN GUIDE TO LEGAL CITATION)

2.Case Analysis

2.1The task in brief

The task is essentially to write an objective, descriptive analysis of a given decision of a court. 

Case below:

1.PJ v R [2012] VSCA 146; (2012) 36 VR 402

2.2Case brief template, with additional section

You should be familiar with the case brief template from LAW1CRL. We are following that template here, but with an additional final heading (‘Commentary’):

1.Citation
Give the correct citation(s) for the judgment.

2.Court
Identify the name of the court and the names of the particular judge(s) giving the judgment.

3.Material Facts
Outline very briefly the factual circumstances which give rise to the issues ultimately adjudicated on and material to the court’s holdings.

4.Procedural History
Outline very briefly how the dispute got to the court, including, where relevant, the nature of the action, the remedy sought, the process by which the case was commenced (e.g. writ, application, police charges, etc), and (if the matter is on appeal) any lower court decisions already made in the matter.

5.Issues
Identify clearly and precisely the legal or factual issue(s) addressed by the court in the judgment.

6.Holdings
Identify the decisions the court made on each of those issues (Also known as ‘held points’.)

7.Reasons
Expound concisely the court’s reasons for reaching those decisions. This is the ratio decidendi: any ‘indispensable factor’ in the court’s reasoning to its conclusion. These should be taken directly from the judgment with care. Some degree of paraphrase may be needed, but be accurate. Where there is more than one judge, be clear as to who stated the reasons, and whether they were made by the majority or minority.

8.Additional comments
Identify and expound comments or observations made by the court that are not essential to the final decision, but which are worth noting. These are ‘obiter dicta’ (remarks made in passing).

9.Order(s)
Identify what the court’s final order(s) were, i.e. what it ordered to be done (or not done) as the way of disposing of the matter.

10.Commentary
Provide any further (but brief) comment on any relevant matter of significance about the case. This is not the occasion to express your own evaluative opinion about the policy underlying the case. Rather, it is a matter of noting anything about the case that is significant from a legal point of view or of interest to lawyers in their work. For example, perhaps the case sets a legal precedent, or leaves certain legal issues unresolved, or there is something useful to note about the subsequent procedural history about the case, or there may be interesting connections with other cases in that area of law. This is a much more open aspect of the case analysis.

2.3General comments on the case analysis

The task is essentially an expository one. You do not assess, critique or judge the decision or give your personal opinion about it. You do not apply the case to a new set of facts. You certainly need to show that you understand the case, but, more importantly, you need also to enable someone else to understand the case. Write in an objective, professional style.

Do not base your exposition on simply quoting or extensive paraphrasing. The expository goal will not be met by finding some relevant words in the case, copying and pasting those words into your answer, and then putting quotation marks around the pasted text. Quoting a text is not expounding it. The task is not to find the relevant bits of the judgment and repeat them to your reader. Your task is to explain to the reader what those bits mean. Of course, some very selective and short quotation may be necessary, but the best work will keep this to a minimum. Nor will the expository goal be met by extensive paraphrasing of the relevant passages. Just re-writing the judge’s key sentences with some words and grammar altered will be unlikely to constitute a good answer, especially if it is done extensively. Knowing how to use a dictionary of synonyms is not the same thing as understanding and then expounding what a text means.

Do not get distracted by doing lots of additional research. Sections 1 to 9 of the case brief template above require virtually no research beyond locating the nominated cases. The focus is on the given case, not with gathering yet more sources on the general issue. Of course, the better read a person is, usually the better they understand and perform their next task, all other things being equal. But if you spend time trying to show how widely you have read (e.g. with references to other cases and issues), it is likely to distract you from the main goal of expounding the case in hand.

However, when it comes to the commentary in section 10, it may well be useful for you to see if you can find out anything further about the case. But, again, please not that it is not a matter of finding out what lots of academics and other commentators have said about the general issues or indeed what they have said about the case (especially where that is critical commentary). Keep your commentary focused on purely legal matters connected to the case.

Give yourself time to complete the task properly. Many students seem to think this sort of expository writing is easy. Perhaps it should be, but this is a strikingly common area of weakness. The task is designed to give you the chance to exercise your skills in clear and concise expository writing. Many students seem to fall into the trap of thinking that ‘just summarising what someone said’ will be quick and easy and that they can rush the job at the last minute. They are wrong, and their work suffers as a result.