Lost in Case Briefing

[Kelley]

Hey everyone!  I am a L1 and I am having such a time with reading cases!  It is taking me forever!  Does anyone out there have any suggestions for me?  Case briefing sites, aids, anything?
Thank-you in advance for your advice!  Have a great semester!

[Andrew]

There are commercial notes available that contain case-briefs of all the cases in a particular casebook.  I'd recommend against using these though.  Law school is very much about learning how to understand cases, not just what they stand for.  I would talk to classmates and discuss the cases before I'd buy commercial notes, but yes, they are available.  They probably sell these in your law school bookstore and at Barrister Books online (see link from the "resources" page).

[dawn]

Just suck it up and learn how to do it.  The whole point of first year is learning how to read the cases and get out of them the important stuff.  The supplemental books you can buy aren't that helpful with teaching you anything - they do the work - but all the profs have read them and can spot someone in class trying to get by with them.  They will ask you questions NOT in those books and you'll hang yourself.

Rest easy - the more you do it the better you'll get.  By 2nd semester I started briefing in the book.  3 years later - I can read a case and immediately see the rules and the issues because I went thru the hard work my 1st year to learn how.