a cornerstone of the experience of legal education is reading cases and by cases of course i mean judicial opinions you may well have already come across some substantial case reading in some of your other courses in this program but let's take a moment to think about the intentional reading that has to occur when reading a judicial opinion there are a number of strategies that can make you much more effective as a reader when you are dealing with a case so this lesson will be a little bit different we're going to review some strategies for active reading and comprehension of cases but we're going to watch a video that probably is a little more entertaining than what i've normally given you here and this video is built around the story of a non-lawyer who is reading a case for the first time while you're watching the video don't just be passive but be on the lookout for a list of six steps to take when reading legal cases they won't be hidden you'll be told fairly explicitly there's a number of things that you need to do when reading cases and they will be numbered the steps that this video covers are designed to involve you in active reading rather than the more passive reading to which most of us have been accustomed in our education up until this time reading cases requires active reading it often requires repeated reading so we want to spend a little bit of time on that by now you're adept at figuring out what your professors have wanted and then regurgitating it back it doesn't work that way in law school simply figuring out what they want isn't enough instead within the confines of legal precedent it's your originality that matters thinking like a lawyer means seeing all the angles and that begins with reading cases but for now let's stop a minute and take a look at our beautiful tennis center backdrop this is david lundberg husband father and attorney at law tomorrow he's scheduled to take three hours of continuing legal education credit on media and the law no snapper yeah he knows all about reading cases you are not changing the channel this is marie hansen about to finish her degree in broadcast journalism no i'm just turning up the volume little does she know she's doing research for her media and the law seminar tomorrow however she's never even read a legal case and then there's the 1999 case out of new york vs jerry seinfeld the plaintiff who knew comic jerry seinfeld in college alleges that mr seinfeld appropriated his personality for the character of george costanza in the television series seinfeld now for some of you this will be your first time reviewing a case attention to the facts of the case the issues before the court how do new york courts interpret the law in this case take about 10 minutes so hi hey hi do you have a pencil i could borrow before are we supposed to be reading thank you all right what are the relevant facts in this case the plaintiff michael costanza who had known jerry seinfeld in college he alleges that the character what are the issues here there are four issues in this case the first is whether his own personality common law right to privacy in new york prohibiting the use of a living person's name claim of false light and invasion was the plaintiff's name and likeness the court held that defense agreed with the defendant's claim that this was a frivolous lawsuit because there was no basis for the plaintiff's claim the plaintiff argued okay then there should be a change in the law but the court held that there was no good faith argument there and then there were sanctions awarded against the plaintiff and his attorney what do you think about the court's decision to award sanctions against the plaintiff so how does one go from this to this a lawyer always has a purpose for reading cases for instance reading to see how the law has changed or for understanding an area of law that isn't clearly defined here the purpose was to find out the current new york law on invasion of privacy and defamation the following six strategies will help you read cases like a lawyer first put the case in context that includes identifying the parties the court hearing the case the date of the decision and the judge writing the opinion also make sure to note any headings in the case these are editorial notes identifying the legal issues how many pages are in the case second read the case for an overview the overview will alert you to the cases structure because most cases follow a pattern first there will be a summary of previous legal proceedings and who won in the prior court a case will have a longer procedural history if it's been appealed to a higher court next the issue or dispute will be identified or why this particular case is in court then the facts follow they tell what happened to whom and why picture the facts in your mind or write a brief description of them finally the decision is often found at the end of the case and the rule is usually stated in the paragraph or two preceding the decision what did the court decide in this particular case quickly overviewing the case in this way you have a feel for what happened then you need to go back and re-read analytically this re-reading is the third strategy and is the time to identify any terms you didn't understand and to make sure you grasp the facts the rule of the case and the decision the court made on each particular issue fourth while you read it's important to mark certain key information such as the date issues rule and any important terms that need to be identified the fifth strategy is synthesis how do all the elements of the case the issue the decision the rule and the reason for the rule fit together do you understand why the court did what it did once these main ideas of the case come together you can generate hypothetical questions in situations for instance what would have happened if some of the facts had been different okay so we have someone who thinks he's the george costanza yes but under new york law there's no invasion of privacy unless what you did goes against the statute and it only falls within the statute if someone's likeness has been used for trade or advertising okay so if the folks at seinfeld were to use the plaintiff's image to sell something like a george costanza doll that would fall under the statute yes finally the sixth strategy for reading cases is evaluation do you approve or disapprove of what the judge did how did the judge make the decision hey i don't think this makes any sense i mean they rip off his name and he can't even sue him for it i don't see how the judge could have done anything else except impose sanctions on the plaintiff and his attorney for bringing a frivolous lawsuit the 2500 fine was getting off easy for wasting everybody's time hey honey how was your seminar today hey she tried to get it's not your routine [Music] so [Music] i hope you learned a great deal from that video and now that we've summarized strategies for reading cases in a more entertaining manner let's go ahead and make sure we've got our notes on this topic correct what have we learned about reading cases well i hope you've learned that the date the court and the jurisdiction of the case are important that provides the legal context of the case and you would always want to notice that when reading a case second you should read a case quickly for an overview to understand its factual context so when i say you should read a case more than once i really do mean that skim over it the first time kind of quickly just to get the lay of the land but then re-read the case analytically and in this re-reading that's where you will look for critical facts and what the facts are that made the court reach the decision that it's that it did so every reading of the case should involve at least two readings fourth you should mark key information in a case when you have a printed copy of it or a digital copy on which you can make notations you want to indicate that some pieces of the case are more important to your understanding than others some people refer to this practice as book briefing because it's rather than a traditional briefing of a case it's making some notations in the case book whether it's digital or whether it's in print ideally you do want to be able to find important information later on from reading a case number five you should synthesize the issue the rule and the court's reasoning or you might call that the application because you want to make sure that you understand why the court decided the way that it did there is going to be some reasoning in the opinion and you want to make sure that you can pull that out finally number six you should evaluate the case critically that you've been reading and determine your own opinion about the court's decision and reasoning occasionally law school classes will throw a case at you that has a fundamental flaw of some sort now that doesn't happen on a lot of occasions but it sometimes does and it's perfectly permissible for you to be of an opinion that a court got a particular decision wrong but you need to be able to explain why the court's opinion is wrong and that's about evaluating the case critically and that's a part of thinking like a lawyer that brings us to the end of lesson 3.1 strategies for reading cases