Case Briefing: The Four Step Process
    Case briefing is the activity that will consume the vast majority of your study time in law school.  So much so that the textbooks for your classes are more accurately referred to as "casebooks".  Briefing cases can be time consuming and confusing without a guide to show the way.  Students without direction spend too much time and come away with far too little that is helpful to them come test time.  You're lucky; you're going to learn how to brief cases now, not mid-way through your second semester. 
    This section of the book will show you what you need to extrapolate from every case, how to format and flesh out that information, and how to use the information when you're called on in class.  To facilitate your learning, we will use an actual case to illustrate.
    There are very few bright line rules about briefing cases.  But the few important rules are very important.  After reading the information in this section you will have what you need to quickly develop a system that suits you. 
    Let's get started.  First, read the Farwell case located in Appendix C (I’ve omitted certain information to make the case more readable).  Then get the Case Briefing Format Sheet in Appendix D. 

    The 4 Steps for Case Briefing are listed below.  These are the steps we'll be going over: