D. Case Comments

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 344-346

Page 344

One of the first legal writing tasks assigned to first-year law students is to write a case comment, often with little or no explanation of what a case comment is or how one goes about writing a case comment. This section will seek to explain such matters.⁴What is a case comment? Simply put, case comments are short essays that usually analyze a single, recent decision of general interest to practising lawyers or the academic legal community. Case comments abound in a wide variety of formats and styles and are not necessarily entitled "case comments." It is quite easy to find case comments by using legal periodical indexes such as the online version of the Index to Canadian Legal Literature (discussed in detail in Chapter 2, Section B). One need merely type in the case name (i.e., the style of cause or the names of the parties) in the Index and this will generally identify or list any articles giving significant treatment to that case. Figure 12.1 sets out an example from Westlaw Canada (from the Index to Canadian Legal Literature) where a search was conducted on "semelhago /5 paramadevan," which resulted in ten articles regarding that decision.

There are usually no strict requirements or rules for writing a case comment unless one is submitting it for publication in a journal that has its own specific requirements (regarding formatting and footnoting, for example). A typical case comment has the following characteristics:

· Facts: There is usually a very brief recitation of the relevant facts to remind the reader about what lead to the dispute. If the facts are not highly relevant to the analysis to be made, this section of the case comment should be kept very brief.

· Ruling/history: A case comment also usually provides a brief overview of the history of the case, along with the ruling of the court. This can also usually be kept very brief.

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Figure 12.1

Search Results from the Index to Canadian Legal Literature on Westlaw Canada

[SEE ATTACHED PDF]

· Point of law: It is also fairly standard for a case comment to summarize the relevant point of law for which the case stands and to place this point of law in a larger context, where appropriate.

· Analysis/argument: The most important part of a case comment, and the part least susceptible to standardization, is the analysis or argument that the writer brings to the case comment. Possible approaches include but are not limited to the following ideas:

» Faulty reasoning or...