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Do you guys think it's useful? I haven't briefed a single case yet and the semester's two weeks in. I usually just go to casebriefs.com and copy and paste if we're discussing a case in class that has a lot of twists and turns.

I'm with arrow. Don't see the point lol. Might I regret this?

Don't do it.

Long briefs are a stupid waste of time.

Taking very short notes on the rule and facts of a case for your reference in/after class can be smart.

As long as you understand what are the important parts of a case opinion, you can and should shorten your notes as much as possible. My "briefs" would look something like case name, state and court abbreviation and year (no need for the case number since you can look up by name), one or two words to remind me of the facts of the case (seizing driver for example), and then holding. But this only worked for me because I could recall the other stuff I wouldn't write down...

I'd say do it for a few weeks as you adjust to reading cases. It's a glorious waste of time later on, however. It's a good way to spend lots of time on a reading and fooling yourself into thinking you're doing good work.

TheoO wrote:I'd say do it for a few weeks as you adjust to reading cases. It's a glorious waste of time later on, however. It's a good way to spend lots of time on a reading and fooling yourself into thinking you're doing good work.

+1

I know more than one person who wasted time briefing cases 1L first semester and ended up median, and then was top 10-20% the rest of the time without briefing. It is a massive waste of time and it sucks for people who don't realize that.

I know someone who did not read for a single class the entire second semester, just did practice questions, and came out in the top 5% of the class at the end. It's hard for 1Ls to understand just how little individual readings matter for your overall outcome. Often, those who do well are simply those who realize early on how the game is played.

people on here tell me not to brief but what if your prof is mega hardcore detail oriented when they cold call people? do i just not give af?

I'm a 1L noob but I do a short brief and take hand-written notes (2/3 profs don't allow comps so I'm gonna preftige handwrite notes every class) on the same page to help organize my notes. I also like to diagram and am a visual learner so having a big white sheet of paper with sparse facts/rules is helpful. If you're reading the cases, a brief only takes like 10 more mins, it's not a huge time sink.

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:people on here tell me not to brief but what if your prof is mega hardcore detail oriented when they cold call people? do i just not give af?

Then you run the risk of not looking good if you get cold called that day.

Exams are blind-graded and thus your performance in a cold call will not change how you are graded. So just give it a good effort and if you really don't know what you're saying, the professor will usually move on.

I think fear of cold calls is a bad reason to spend too much time getting sucked into getting too bogged down in the details of a case. If you want to go hard 1L (which I respect if that's what you want to do, grades matter and I definitely think working really hard improves your odds of doing better) I think there are better ways of doing it (E&Es, hornbooks) than having all the facts and procedural posture of specific cases down.

star fox wrote:

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:people on here tell me not to brief but what if your prof is mega hardcore detail oriented when they cold call people? do i just not give af?

Then you run the risk of not looking good if you get cold called that day.

Exams are blind-graded and thus your performance in a cold call will not change how you are graded. So just give it a good effort and if you really don't know what you're saying, the professor will usually move on.

I think fear of cold calls is a bad reason to spend too much time getting sucked into getting too bogged down in the details of a case. If you want to go hard 1L (which I respect if that's what you want to do, grades matter and I definitely think working really hard improves your odds of doing better) I think there are better ways of doing it (E&Es, hornbooks) than having all the facts and procedural posture of specific cases down.

I'm just worried about looking like a tard in front of my peers.

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:

star fox wrote:

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:people on here tell me not to brief but what if your prof is mega hardcore detail oriented when they cold call people? do i just not give af?

Then you run the risk of not looking good if you get cold called that day.

Exams are blind-graded and thus your performance in a cold call will not change how you are graded. So just give it a good effort and if you really don't know what you're saying, the professor will usually move on.

I think fear of cold calls is a bad reason to spend too much time getting sucked into getting too bogged down in the details of a case. If you want to go hard 1L (which I respect if that's what you want to do, grades matter and I definitely think working really hard improves your odds of doing better) I think there are better ways of doing it (E&Es, hornbooks) than having all the facts and procedural posture of specific cases down.

I'm just worried about looking like a tard in front of my peers.

Your peers don't care. They're probably g-chatting rather than listening to whether you are nailing the facts correctly or not.

Word of advice: if the professor asks you something and you have no idea, just start reading from a random part of the opinion.

If you've read the case, you should have a gist of what has happened in it. For a professor who is detail oriented, just give some bullshit until they leave you alone. It's not worth the effort required to actually get the level of detail that they are looking for. Your time is much better spent on E&Es, or drinking.

TheoO wrote:If you've read the case, you should have a gist of what has happened in it. For a professor who is detail oriented, just give some bullshit until they leave you alone. It's not worth the effort required to actually get the level of detail that they are looking for. Your time is much better spent on E&Es, or drinking.

can you expand on using the E&E part? should i just go straight through from page 1 to the end or should i just jump from section to section depending on what my class does? I guess I'm wondering whether the E&E chapters are each self-contained or if i need to go through them in order like a book.

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:

TheoO wrote:If you've read the case, you should have a gist of what has happened in it. For a professor who is detail oriented, just give some bullshit until they leave you alone. It's not worth the effort required to actually get the level of detail that they are looking for. Your time is much better spent on E&Es, or drinking.

can you expand on using the E&E part? should i just go straight through from page 1 to the end or should i just jump from section to section depending on what my class does? I guess I'm wondering whether the E&E chapters are each self-contained or if i need to go through them in order like a book.

Also 1l, ive been skipping after the lessons. For example last week we did battery so I read the battery part of my E and E. This week was Trespass, trespass to chattels, and conversion, so tomorrow im going to read the relevant chapters. I doubt my prof is going though the whole E&E on Torts so why waste time reading parts of the book we aren't going over

Each chapter is self contained. Go to the chapter that corresponds with what you're doing in class.

cool. thanks dudes!

Briefing cases is a waste of time imo. E&Es are also a waste of time (for me).

Leonardo DiCaprio wrote:people on here tell me not to brief but what if your prof is mega hardcore detail oriented when they cold call people? do i just not give af?

http://www.invispress.com/law/

http://www.onelbriefs.com/fulllist.htm

How you look if cold called = ZERO importance

many, many, many people are in class superstars regarding minutiae in the cases and that has no correlation to grades (or maybe negative correlation).