If it's good enough for law students it ought to be good enough for us

http://volokh.com/2011/07/25/how-to-read-a-legal-opinion-a-guide-for-new-law-students-4/

A guide for first year law students (folks who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about or reading) on how to read and (perhaps more importantly) how to understand a legal opinion.

Since one of the rules here is to cite the sources of law

•(5) CITE TO AUTHORITY: If you state a rule of law, it is incumbent upon you to try to cite, as best you can, to authority. Citing to authority, using links when available,is what makes OCDO so successful. An authority is a published source of law that can back your claim up - statute, ordinance, court case, newspaper article covering a legal issue, etc.

Click to expand...

it stands to reason that it would be of great help to know how to understand the opinion so that you are sure it is in fact supporting the point you are trying to make.

I highly recommend a reading of the guide. It may turn some more folks from dabblers and pedants into real lawyers. Sorry, but you are going to have to go to law school* and then pass the bar exam to become an attorney.


stay safe.

Thanks skid. That was a very informative read. I think it would benefit most of the people on this site. It gave me a better understanding of what a legal opinion is and how to read it.

Interesting. What I got out of it is:

1. Our system of law is wide open to the injection of common sense.

2. All the good laws and common sense in the world may not be enough to sway a bad judge intent on injection their own brand of "sense" or lack thereof.