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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to discuss the FIRAC case briefing method, which
is designed to help you not only in class, but also with essay exams.
FIRAC stands for facts, issue, rule, analysis, conclusion, which you can see is based
on the IRAC method.
Let me explain why this is a great way to brief cases.
As I’ve mentioned before, case briefing is about the process of learning the law and
not about the end product.
If case briefing was about the brief itself, you’d be better off finding someone else’s
brief and using that one.
But case briefing is primarily a technique to get you thinking critically about the law,
which, by the way, is the skill you need to succeed on a law school exam.
In other words, there is a correlation between case briefing and exam writing.
When you write a law school exam, you should use the IRAC, or more specifically, the Nested
IRAC method.
The more practice you have with IRAC the better you will do on your finals.
So by case briefing using FIRAC, you will be practicing your IRAC skills several times
every day—in effect, a two for the price of one special.
Next let’s go through an example, and after the example I will provide you with five case
briefing tips.
Let’s use FIRAC on the famous case of Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road.
Facts: Woman is sitting at railway station.
An explosion occurs near her, which causes her harm.
Explosion caused by negligence of railroad employee negligently helping someone else onto
moving train.
Railroad employee’s action caused unmarked package that person was carrying to fall on
the tracks.
The package happened to contain fireworks.
Issue: Did the railroad owe a duty of care to the woman, when the defendant’s negligence
was directed towards someone else?
Rule: There is no duty owed to a plaintiff when the defendant could not have reasonably
foreseen the risk of their negligent act.
Analysis: The negligence of the railway employees was directed at the two men boarding the train.
The employees saw the package in the arms of the passengers, but had no reason to believe it was filled
with explosives.
At most, the only foreseeable consequence of helping the men boarding the moving train
was that they would fall down, or that whatever they were carrying would be damaged.
The woman was not even near the spot where the negligence occurred.
Conclusion: The woman was not a foreseeable plaintiff because the defendants could not
have reasonably foreseen that she would be injured by exploding fireworks.
Some additional tips for case briefing.
One, keep it brief.
Generally, no more than about half a page in length.
Two, don’t rely on someone else’s brief—create your own.
Three, the only correction you need to make to the brief is the rule statement.
This is because after class, you will copy the rule statement into your outline.
And that is the only part of the case brief you need for the final exam. Four, don’t
spend a lot of time on case briefing.
Read the case once and then prepare the case brief.
You need a working knowledge of the case, not completely mastery.
If it is an older case, you might need to read it a second time because of the archaic
language.
But generally, don’t read a case more than once.
Five, avoid book briefing. Now book briefing is when you place an “I” next to the issue in your
casebook, then an “R” next to the rule, you highlight the analysis, and then you place a “C” next
to the conclusion.
It is a short cut, but it's not going to help you with the twin goal of exam preparation and class preparation.
Remember, the whole reason behind the FIRAC method is to help you for classroom prep and exam preparation.
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