Substance & Style

• Publication year: 2012
• Pages: 12
• Citation: Vol. 81 No. 5 Pg. 12

Substance & Style No. 81 J. Kan. Bar Assn 5, 12 (2012) Kansas Bar Journal May, 2012

Be Easy on the Court: Get Your Law in Order

By Ellen Byers, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, ellen.byers@washbum.edu

Knowing the law and presenting it effectively are two different things. Most lawyers recognize that it is inadvisable to present law in a raw or "undigested" form. Most understand, for example, that presenting case law seriatim for a judge to read in his or her limited time is unhelpful and also likely to irritate rather than persuade the judge. But how does one transform what seems like a bulky and unmanageable bunch of authority into a streamlined, fully informative synthesis?

Cogent legal writing is never as simple as applying a formula, but effective presentation of law can be accomplished by keeping in mind a methodology that works in most circumstances.

First, law should be presented in the form of an inverted triangle, with general principles first, followed by increasingly narrow rules and holdings. Distinguish between the broader principles you pull or synthesize from cases, which provide guidance and context, from in-depth analysis of selected case facts and holdings, which will come in later when you compare and contrast them to the case under review.

Second, if statutory language is involved, set forth in your analysis only the relevant language (you...