What Is a Legal Analysis?
Put simply, legal analysis is lawyering. It is both an explanation of the law (as it currently stands) and a prediction about how a judge might rule if presented with a particular set of facts. To engage in legal analysis, you must possess both substantive knowledge about the area of law you are investigating and the ability to apply that knowledge to the facts at hand. Legal analysis has long been considered the hallmark of a successful lawyer. Understandably so , as the very purpose of most legal writing is to persuade the reader (whether a judge, opposing counsel or client) that your understanding of the law and its application to the facts is necessarily correct and should be accepted.
Components of a Legal Analysis Template
A legal analysis template is a roadmap that guides you through the complex process of legal analysis and synthesis. It ensures that your analysis is complete, logical, and tailored to your audience, whether it is a court, a business, or an academic institution. The issue involved: This is a straightforward statement of the question you are analyzing. This allows for uniformity in treatment and analysis in briefs, memos and briefs. The use of these headings also prevents the reader from trying to quickly develop the answer without going through your analysis and understanding how the conclusion was reached. The rule stated: This is a statement or list of statements of law that addresses the issue presented. It may be specific and detailed, or it may be generic. The most important aspect of the rule stated is to be thorough and accurate. If the rule isn’t accurate, your analysis will not be logically sound. The rule applied: This is the part of your analysis that applies the rule stated to the facts of the issue presented. Strong legal analysis requires strong explanation of how and why the rule is applied to the issue. Be thorough, but also concise. State your application of the rule and effectively support your application. The conclusion: This is the answer to the question asked in the issue. It must be based on the thorough analysis outlined above. When drafting a brief, memo, or other discussion that allows for the issue to be discussed in depth, a thorough analysis is appropriate, but not required.
Structure of a Legal Analysis
Your legal analysis is only as good as the sequence you use for presenting each part. Each component of the analysis builds on the others. If the sequence is out of kilter, the analysis suffers. So what’s the right order? For one thing, you need to start with the facts.
Everything starts with the facts. It’s the beginning of your legal analysis because it gives meaning to everything else. The outcome largely hinges on how the facts relate to the issues, rules, and arguments that follow. And that’s why it’s important to present the facts clearly enough that the reader sees the significance of the details in the factual description.
In all but the smallest legal writing assignments, the facts are usually best presented at the start of your analysis. This usually makes the most sense because you’re answering your reader’s questions on a need-to-know basis. And you need to start with the facts because the reader can’t understand any subsequent part without first understanding the factual context.
Depending on your analysis, the legal issues might come before the rules. For example, include them first if they must be known before the reader understands the facts or the law involved. But most of the time you’ll want to present the law right after the facts and then follow it with the issues.
The law is the second element of a legal analysis. That’s because the law is usually the same for both issues you’ve framed. (Exceptions occur when one of the issues is only a variation on the other.) So presenting the law through two separate rules is often unnecessary. On the other hand, you need to start with the law to make sure the reader is prepared for the next step in your analysis: the issues.
Your legal analysis should follow this same sequence for every substantive legal discussion. Because your reader is mostly likely trying to answer a question, this sequence aids comprehension. In short, the sequence offers clarity where it’s most needed.
Common Errors in Legal Analysis
A common pitfall we see when it comes to legal analysis is not properly working through the holding element. This is a critical point in reverse engineering each case to follow a pattern that has the clarity and precision of a math formula. If your holding is lacking in any of the details that make up its parts, then you will struggle to make an analysis based on a reversal of a bad decision. Another common pitfall is not following through with the elements that make up the rule. Each aspect of the rule needs to be dealt with in its own space ensuring that it is precise and limited in scope to only that particular rule. When the authors of the cases do not follow this guideline, then your analysis will be severely flawed with many moving parts that will be impossible to reverse engineer for a proper response. While it may seem trivial, restating the facts of the case can be a pitfall if you are simply cutting and pasting from the case itself. This is rarely the best option for restating the facts. In fact, we suggest writing out the new restatement of facts well before you begin to review the case in detail so that you can see the important highlighted issues before you ever begin writing your restatement of facts.
How to Use a Legal Analysis Template
A legal analysis template is designed to provide a clear structure for organizing complex legal arguments. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to effectively utilize a legal analysis template:
- Read the Case or Question Carefully. Whether you are dealing with an issue in law school, an exam, or an actual case, you want to carefully read the text before you begin your analysis. Make notes of the key facts, claims, or concerns and ensure that you understand the different ways that the issue can be approached.
- Identify Key Issues. The next step is to highlight the key issues. You may find that depending on the nature of the issue there are a few different rules that could apply. So, analyze the likely issues and highlight them within the template.
- Draft the Analysis. Now , you’ll want to begin drafting the draft analysis in the template. Depending on the issue, you may want to incorporate different types of arguments. For example, you may want to incorporate counterarguments and rebuttals into the analysis.
- Build Hypotheticals. Revising or building hypotheticals can be a useful part of a legal analysis. It helps to illustrate how a legal rule can be applied in multiple ways and to show how it can address many different issues. Creating hypotheticals can also help you see the gaps in your own analysis and anchor your argument.
- Revise, Revise, Revise. A solid legal analysis should be revised at least a few times. This process helps you to identify areas that need additional clarification or arguments that are difficult to understand. Further revisions will make the analysis more readable and clear.
Advantages of Using a Legal Analysis Template
The first and perhaps most obvious advantage of using a legal analysis template is that it has already been fully tested in years of use. It’s the best outline to use for any legal writing that covers an excellent thesis, supports your interpretation of the law, and really knows how to persuade with impact. You may be saying at this point: but I hate outlines! Part of that dislike is probably because it’s difficult to find a good one. You have a great thesis, but then what? Where do you even start with your argument? That’s what a legal analysis template is for. It helps you get started so you can knock it out of the park.
Secondly, we can’t tell you how many times law students have told us that a legal analysis template helped them write better essays. It gave them structure, it helped them fill in the requirements, and it guaranteed that their arguments had strength, clarity and cohesiveness. You don’t need to guess whether you’ve done a good job with your essay – with a strong legal analysis template, you have everything you need. And did we mention that it has already been used in years of practice so you know it works because it has been proven in the real world?
You’ll save literally hours of work by having access to a legal analysis template. Templates save you so much time in writing because they are just a shell. All of your legal analysis and every point you want to make fits easily into a legal analysis template. It reduced your workloads by at least a few hours. That’s why many legal professionals have told us that the hardest part of preparing a legal essay is simply finding a good template.
Finally, a legal analysis template helps ensure that your final product is of a higher quality. There is no doubt that a template will be beneficial for a legal practitioner who writes them on a regular basis. They’ve learned over the years that having a well-structured legal analysis template will let them get all of their information down onto the page. But, how is a legal analysis template useful for someone who hasn’t had a lot of practice? In all honesty, it can be invaluable for someone who hasn’t had much practice with legal writing. The reason for that is simply that you follow the same template every time as you speak to the same thesis. The focus of your writing won’t be on something distracting, such as what to start with first, what to say in the body of your paper and where everything should go. Instead, your focus will be on the thesis which will make your arguments more powerful.
Legal Analysis Template Samples
A legal analysis template is only as useful as the amount of insight it helps the writer to generate. That’s why so much of this book is about generating insight and knowing when to apply the various tools you can use during legal analysis. A template to write a case summary is meaningless if you can’t figure out how to apply the legal rule set forth in that case to the problem you are working on.
That said, there are a number of different types of legal analysis templates and some can be quite helpful when you are writing a legal brief or memo.
Sample 1: Case Summaries and Trial Briefs
When you are summarizing cases in a trial brief , you may find it helpful to use the following template:
State the issue presented
State the procedural history
State the rule of law
State the facts
State the analysis (how the rule of law was applied to the facts)
State the conclusion
Sample 2: CRRA Method
Case Facts
Rule of Law
Rule Elements
Application of Rule to facts
Conclusion
Analysis
Note: The CRRA method is sometimes considered a two-step analysis. Both the application of the rule to the facts and the conclusion are part of the first step and the second step is the analysis portion.
Sample 3: Essay Outline
In a typical essay outline, you would generally use the following spells:
Introduction
Issue
Context
Relevant Law
Analysis
Conclusion
Sample 4: Legal Memo Template
The legal memo template below contains the elements and the order you should generally follow when writing a legal memo:
Statement of Facts
Question Presented
Brief Answer
Applicable Law
Discussion
Conclusion