Questions we Can Help you to Answer
Paper Instructions:
Please prepare a short IRAC summary http://www.lawnerds.com/guide/irac.html
- EACH summary should be approximately 200 words, for a total of 400 words for this assignment.
- Please use the court case and NLRB decision listed below ( numbers 1 and 2).
- Use appropriate legal citations as explained in the lesson.
1. Hartman Bros. Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. v. NLRB, 280 F.3d 1110 (7th Cir. 2002).
2. Stericycle, Inc., 357 N.L.R.B. No. 61 (Aug. 23, 2011).
IRAC
http://www.lawnerds.com/guide/irac.html
Issue
What facts and circumstances brought these parties to court? And then, what is the issue that is to be decided based on the facts presented in this case.
Rule
What is the governing law for the issue? (What is the general rule of law that is to be applied to the particular facts and issue in this case).
Analysis
Apply the legal rules to these unique facts? What is the reasoning that the court used to apply the legal rules to the facts of this case?
Conclusion
How does the court's holding modify the rule of law? Has the court announced a modified rule of law that applies in the factual circumstances of this case?
For Citation
Basics of Legal Citation
The first part of any case citation is the name of the case. The name has at least one or more of the parties to the case. Some cases have a single name, for example In Re Yamashita or the NLRB case ATC Forsythe. Most cases have two parties, but some have more (particularly class actions which have multiple plaintiffs).
When you cite a case, the case name MUST be in italics or underlined (italics is more current, underline was more the format when typewriters were used). Pick either italics or underline and use it throughout your whole document. Use that name form EVERY time that you mention the case.
Next in case citation is typically something that looks like this - 152 NLRB 25. This is usually the legal source book where the case is found (in this case NLRB bound volumes), with the volume number first and the page number second. In this case, the volume is 152 and the page number is 25. Many cases have multiple volume citations, listing citations found in more than one federal volume, perhaps a Westlaw cite (look for WL in the cite) or a Lexis cite (look for lexis in the cite). For example, Harris v. United States, 382 U.S. 162, 167, 86 S.Ct. 352, 15 L.Ed.2d 240 (1965) lists 3 places where you can find the case—U.S. volumes, S. Ct. volumes, or L.Ed. volumes. In this course we will use the first location listed, in this example, the U.S. So you can cite this case as Harris v. United States, 382 U.S. 162 (1965).
When citing a decision you must cite the page number where the information you are referencing can be found. Using the prior example we want to cite page 167 where we found a quotation. We would cite Harris v. United States, 382 U.S. 162, 167 (1965). We have added a number that is called the pin cite. The first page number—162—is the page in the volume where the first page of the decision appears. The 167 that we added, is the pin cite and is the page where the specific quote is found. This is a very important number, because anyone reading the document needs to know exactly where to find the referenced information. You should include a pin cite for any specific material that you cite.
Since many of your decisions will involve administrative law—EEOC or NLRB—particularly more recent decisions, a few comments are appropriate. Most administrative law decisions have a single name as the title. Recent decisions are not yet included into a bound volume, and appear literally as slips of paper distributed to practitioners not long after the decision is made public. These decisions are called "slip opinions" or "slip ops."
Slip ops typically have three numbers—the volume number, the case number, and a slip op page cite. The volume number is the number of the bound volume in which the case will eventually appear. Cases are given case numbers in order of publication. The first case published or made public in a volume is No. 1, the second is No. 2. The page cite number is a bit complicated. In contrast with decisions found in bound volumes, which have a page number referring to the page where the decision first appears, the slip opinions have no bound volume page number. For that reason, pin cite citations in a slip opinion refer to the actual page in the slip opinion, which will typically be a low number like 1 or 4 or 16.
For example, a case citation like, St. George Warehouse, 351 NLRB No. 42, slip op. at 3, will appear in the 351st Board volume, the case was the 42nd issued during the volume period, and the particular proposition, holding, or quotation cited was found on the 3rd page of the slip opinion.
