Strategies for Improving Case Reading
An excellent resource to help you improve your legal reading skills is Ruth Ann McKinney's Reading Like a Lawyer: Time-Saving Strategies for Reading Law Like an Expert (Carolina Academic Press). Prof. McKinney's book provides useful guidance and concrete exercises that will help you with this important skill.
As you listened to the professors' commentaries as they read the cases on the previous page, you may have noticed some similarities in the ways that all three read their cases. Researchers have found that by imitating these more experienced readers, beginners too can enhance their reading skills. Consider the following guidelines.
Learn the structure of cases
Cases are typically organized with the following structure:
Summary of previous legal proceedings
Issues or dispute - the facts
Decision
Rationale or reasoning
The rule
Being more aware of structure will help you to find the particular types of information you will be looking for in each section.
Read cases more than once
You may have noticed that the professors read their cases in context. Prof. Schairer, for example, spent quite a bit of time going through the fact pattern and examining the relevant statute before she even began reading the case. Understanding context will help you to anticipate the court's reasoning.
Read through your case quickly to get an overview. Experienced case readers often look through the case to get a general idea of the main issues that are being discussed. They often want to know immediately how the court decided the case before starting a close reading.
Read the case again analytically. Experienced readers spend a lot of time on the facts, often rereading them several times before proceeding with the rest of the case.
Predict the outcome and the court's reasoning
One way to test your case reading skill is to try to predict the outcome of the case and the court's reasoning as you are reading. This strategy will keep you engaged in the legal analysis presented in the case and help you to develop your analytical abilities.
Other Strategies
Write as you read. Use the margins to summarize, ask questions, agree, or disagree.
Read with a dictionary and look up any unfamiliar words.
Try to anticipate your professor's comments and questions about the text.
Selected Bibliography
John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom 133-148 (1996).
Dorothy Deegan, Exploring Individual Differences Among Novices Reading in a Specific Domain: The Case of Law 30 Reading Res. Q. 154 (1995).
Peter Dewitz, Reading Law: Three Suggestions for Legal Education, 27 U. Tol. L. Rev. 657 (1996).
Elizabeth Fajans and Mary R. Falk, Against the Tyranny of Paraphrase: Talking Back to Texts 78 Cornell L. Rev. 163 (1993).
Mary A. Lundeberg, Metacognitive Aspects of Reading Comprehension: Studying Understanding in Legal Case Analysis 22 Reading Res. Q. (1987).
Laurel Currie Oates, Beating the Odds: Reading Strategies of Law Students Admitted Through Alternative Admissions Programs 83 Iowa L. Rev. 139 (1997).