by Audrey Howitt

Created on: April 27, 2010   Last Updated: April 28, 2010

Legal memoranda, like legal briefs, are usually written in a formulaic fashion, following certain rules that make is easy for a judge or other legal professional to digest the document quickly.  Legal memoranda usually provide the underpinnings for most legal briefs.  So, whether you need to prepare a memorandum or brief or merely need to decipher one, it may be helpful to know that most memoranda and briefs follow the same format.  A very simple legal brief format follows this discussion.

The format is called IRAC, which stands for Issue, Rule, Analysis/Argument and Conclusion.  The following further explains the format.

Issue

 In a clear and succinct manner, state the issue at hand.  The issue can be formulated as a heading such as: “Whether the statute of limitations prohibits the cause of action for negligence by the plaintiff.”  This may be how you see the issue stated in a legal brief.  This heading is numbered and centered on the page as are all the subsequent headings.

In a legal brief, you want to write persuasively, that is, you want to persuade the reader that your way of seeing the facts and the law applied to the facts is the correct one. Thus, you might see the issue stated in a persuasive fashion in a heading, such as “The statute of limitations does not apply nor prohibit plaintiff’s cause of action for negligence.”

Below this heading, you provide the facts that you will later discuss in the analysis section.  You state the relevant facts in chronological order as they pertain to the issue being briefed. Leave out all facts that are not relevant to the issue.   This is often difficult to do. It is tempting to put in more facts than is necessary or to embroider the facts for the sake of argument.  Reserve argument for later and state only the facts that are important to the issue.

Rule

Next, you state the applicable rule, also as a heading.  A legal memoranda or brief must be well-researched.  Each jurisdiction has both statutory law and case law.  Some issues are covered only by statutory law. Some are covered only by case law, and some are covered by both.  In the case of a statute of limitations, California statutory law and case law cover the issue and both must be examined.

The rule is stated as a heading and it may state for example: “Code of Civil Procedure Section 200000 doesn’t act as a bar to plaintiff’s action

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