Assignment #1: Team Case Brief, Analysis & Discussion Post
You will be writing about this case:
Occupiers’ Liability and Negligence Chouhan v. Canada Safeway Limited, 2012 ABQB 7 (CanLII),
https://canlii.ca/t/fpn3l
Rationale & Purpose: This Case Brief aims to deepen your knowledge of select topics in business law, practice analyzing cases, and hone your reasoning and writing skills. Through this assignment, you will grasp how to interpret business laws, communicate logically, and provide constructive comments. All lawyers use the case brief format. As future business leaders, you will receive opinions from lawyers in this format. After writing one yourself, you will better understand what the lawyer will communicate to you.
Knowledge: The Case Brief builds on the skills and content from Module 1.
Description: A Case Brief is a written summary of a legal decision. As a team, you will summarize one legal decision and provide your recommendations, opinion, and two discussion questions.
Instructions:
• Read the case. Prepare a Case Brief
• Structure the Case Brief using the following headings for each section of the Case Brief:
Arial, 12 font size, 1.5 spacing, 1″ margins throughout
No title page. Number your pages on the right, bottom corner
Structure the Case Brief using the following headings and follow the approximate word count for each section.
Use the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (9th Edition) to format
You have to use the Canadian website “Canlii” for the similar case in section 3 (Relevance).
Summary of Facts (approx. 200 words)
Issues (approx. 150 words)
Relevance (approx. 250 words)
Opinion (approx. 200 words)
Read what each section of the Case Brief should include below:
Summary of Facts
The summary of facts explains what happened in the case. It overviews the case’s most important points, including the relevant people, actions, locations, and objects involved. At a minimum, the summary should answer: who, when, where, what, why, and how. Depending on the case’s complexity, it should be around six to ten sentences long. It helps to write the summary of facts after explaining the legal issues in the case. The critical aspect of this is identifying the facts that impacted the outcome. It does not mean all the facts discussed in the case. Instead, identify and describe the facts tied to the issues. An essential part of the facts can include (if applicable) the legislation or regulation the court is asked to consider.
Legal Issues
The issues presented in the case are the questions the court must answer in arriving at its decision. Stay focused on the primary issue or issues. An essential aspect of summarizing a case is determining which issue(s) is the most important. Focus on the substantive law questions the court is tasked with assessing rather than procedural law. Substantive law addresses how persons govern themselves, while procedural law addresses how persons can enforce the law.
Relevance
In this section, you need to consider whether the decision says something about the law beyond simply how the outcome affected the parties to the dispute and provide recommendations on how to avoid similar issues from occurring again (Here you should be using Canlii for providing a similar case). Consider the questions below when explaining the relevance of the decision and answer at least two in this section.
1. How will the legal principles discussed in this case be applied in similar circumstances?
2. What ethical issues are addressed?
3. What does this case say about the law’s impact on businesses?
4. What can business persons learn from this to avoid these problems in the future?
Opinion
In this section of the Case Brief, you will provide your viewpoint on the case. For example, do you have any concerns about this development? Does your team agree with the trial’s outcome, and why or why not?