A collection of the best LPC Skills notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of Skills notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams...
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Professional Legal Research & Writing: Presenting your research memorandum
PLR & Writing assessed together
You need to hand in a research project
CHECKLIST
General points
Writing
appreciate the ‘plan, write, revise’ approach to Writing;
plan the content and structure of a memorandum;
practice revising a poorly written memorandum;
PLR
determine the scope and identify the objectives of the research and address all relevant legal and factual issues;
identify the legal context and be able to analyse the legal issues and identify, prioritise and use relevant primary and secondary sources, including standard practitioner texts, journals, case authority and legislation;
keep a methodical, accurate and complete record of the research undertaken;
draw clear conclusions and identify courses of action; and
present the results of their investigation and research in the form of a research memorandum as practiced
do not write a letter or anything else
Writing and PLR
triple check the presentation of the results of your investigation and research.
Specific points
First, always ask yourself:
--> Who is the reader? How will this affect your reading?
Another solicitor? Then don’t explain concepts, cite case law fully as they might wish to look it up
A company director? Will know certain things like company procedure but won’t be interested in knowing full case law citations or statutory references
Someone who doesn’t know anything about law? Need to explain everything in simple words, do not refer to specific cases or statutes as they may be confused
--> What is the purpose of your communication?
First advice? Explain everything, include a summary of the issues
Follow up correspondence? Only answer specific questions, don’t summarise and don’t crowd the document with unnecessary information that has previously been discussed
Secondly, check: what is the primary focus of our advice?
Present the legal issues you are asked to address and apply them to the case
Tip: Work in three stages
STAGE 1 – ANALYSING THE PROBLEM
Four steps:
Summarise the problem
Try to summarise the problem in a few sentences.
It helps to sub-divide this in the following way:
Person X is charged with offence y.
State what the prosecution has to prove.
State what the relevant law is.
Identify material facts
Again try to cut it down.
Should only be 3 or four points.
Try to write in bullet points.
Who are you action for?
What happened?
Identify legal issues
Ask: How is the prosecution going to prove that person X is guilty of offence y under statute z?
Again, these should only be a few points.
Tip:
Really think about the problem with which you are faced.
The issues are not the same as the original question(s) you have been asked in the memorandum.
Consider:
What does the client ultimately want to achieve?
What, if anything, is the client complaining about, or objecting to?
How might the client achieve its goal or solve its problem?
If the ideal solution is not possible, are there any alternatives?
What are the potential obstacles/difficulties/costs?
What factors might make a significant difference to the outcome?
Are there any risks the client should be made aware of?
Select key words
Key words to searching information
Try the obvious ones first – narrow down to maybe 3.
You will find other relevant key words from there.
STAGE 2 – TRACK DOWN THE INFORMATION
Initial tasks:
What are the client’s objectives?
this is what you should focus on
Likely sources?
Secondary sources
Use at least (!) 2 secondary sources
Examples:
Law Society Website
Encyclopaedia on the relevant area
Parliamentary Notes
Practitioner texts
Journals
Textbooks
Preliminary analysis
Secondary sources help find out the background of the relevant law and give a good overview.
Can also be helpful in finding new key words.
Primary sources
You always (!) need to list primary sources – this is essential
= Black Letter Law
Legislation
Primary Legislation
Acts of Parliament
Secondary Legislation
Statutory Instruments
Statutory Codes of Practice
Case Law
Always think: How do these primary sources apply to your client’s problem?
Tips:
!! always check whether statute applied at the relevant time
It could be that an earlier statute was applicable
!! always read footnotes!
Very often, the information you need to solve the problem is contained in footnotes, i.e. hidden to make it less obvious
When researching, keep a well-structured RESEARCH TRAIL.
Use a checklist – for example:
Summary of the problem
Start with summarising the problem in your own words
Not more than a few lines
Material facts
Identify and isolate the material facts
Legal issues
Identify and isolate the legal issues that the problem is raising.
Frame as questions
Key words or phrases or natural language string
Make a list of key words or a combination of key words to search under.
Tip: Do not forget to list synonyms!
Sources
List suitable sources
Secondary Sources 1 – Record of research
Look up key words
Note relevant law
List primary sources
Update
Secondary Sources 2 – Record of research
Look up key words – any new information?
Note relevant new information
List any primary sources
Update
Primary Sources
Find relevant law...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Skills Notes.
A collection of the best LPC Skills notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of Skills notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams...
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