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FILAC

The FILAC method is a framework for analyzing legal cases that consists of 5 steps: Facts, Issues, Law, Analysis, and Conclusion. In the Facts step, only the material facts relevant to understanding the case are outlined. Issues identifies the legal questions to be addressed. Law researches primary sources like statutes and precedents and secondary sources explaining them. Analysis applies the law to the facts and issues. Conclusion summarizes the court's decision and reasoning.

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Vishu Tiwari
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442 views

FILAC

The FILAC method is a framework for analyzing legal cases that consists of 5 steps: Facts, Issues, Law, Analysis, and Conclusion. In the Facts step, only the material facts relevant to understanding the case are outlined. Issues identifies the legal questions to be addressed. Law researches primary sources like statutes and precedents and secondary sources explaining them. Analysis applies the law to the facts and issues. Conclusion summarizes the court's decision and reasoning.

Uploaded by

Vishu Tiwari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Notes for Legal Language and Legal Writing [BAL264N/BBL264N] FILAC Method of Case Analysis and Review

FILAC Method of Case Analysis and Review

FILAC is for Facts, Issues, Law, Analysis and Conclusion

Facts

The first step in the FILAC method is “facts”. In this section, you will want to identify the relevant facts
within the case. Try not to summarize the case verbatim otherwise you haven’t really saved yourself any
time - which is a key advantage of using this method! Outline only the facts that influence the case and play
a critical role in understanding the spirit of the case and the law.

Depending on the case you’re analyzing, the length of your facts may vary. Be sure to focus on the material
facts. Include aspects such as “What is the event that gave rise to the dispute”, “Who”, “When”, Where”,
“How”, “Who all were the parties”, etc.

All of these fact-collecting techniques will also help you read the case with purpose to pick out the important
facts, making it easier to continue developing the analysis.

Issues

This is where you identify the legal issues that need to be reviewed and researched. The issues you outline
depend on the facts of the case, which is why outlining the facts is an important preliminary step. Reviewing
a case or situation for legal issues will also assist in determining how weak or strong a case is. Try to keep
it brief. Issues are typically outlined in bullet points, short sentences or poised as questions. The issues are
what the court will consider when deciding whether to grant or deny a form of relief.

Some cases may yield multiple issues, and some may just have one, and there could even be overlapping
among them. See if few issues can be clubbed together.

Having the issues clearly outlined will help you confirm whether you have addressed and answered each
issue at the end of your research.

Law

Once you’ve outlined the legal issues, you can begin to research the appropriate laws that govern the issues.
The court will end up applying the legislation to the issues so it is best to keep that in mind when you are
doing your research. Ensure that the laws you find are applicable to the legal issues so that you can properly
assess the legal merit of your case. Both procedural as well as substantive. When deciding where to look to
conduct research into the applicable laws, aim to use both primary and secondary sources.
Notes for Legal Language and Legal Writing [BAL264N/BBL264N] FILAC Method of Case Analysis and Review

Primary sources are considered actual legislation and case law precedents. Primary sources are helpful
because they produce exact legislation that may apply to the case and the legal issues. Case law precedents
are also impactful because it can give you an idea of how the legal issues will be assessed by the court.

Secondary sources are sources that aim to explain and critique the law. These sources can be found in
textbooks, articles, commentaries and videos. The purpose of reviewing secondary sources is to clarify and
gain insight into the legislation and precedents you have discovered. When you are researching case law in
particular, be sure to identify any recent updates or overturned decisions.

The law changes daily and ensure you are updated with the latest laws.

Analysis

In this section, you are tasked with applying the relevant law to the facts of your case and analyzing the
issues from various viewpoints. Analyzing the law in this way allows you to reach an expected outcome in
your case. The legal analysis is a critical part of legal research because you are outlining the relevance of
certain cases, statues, and legislation while looking at the context of your case. Here, you will begin to
compare and contrast relevant cases, interpret the statues you have identified, and directly apply the law to
the facts of the case.

If you are doing a case brief on an already decided case, the analysis section is also where you include the
court’s rationale for their decision. You can also distinguish past cases from the current case to better
determine what law and rationale is applicable versus what is not. Your analysis should essentially dictate
how the court has combined the facts of the case to the law in order to reach a certain conclusion.

Conclusion

Finally, you have reached the conclusion. The conclusion first outlines the decision of the case. It can be as
brief as “the case was dismissed” or “the appeal was granted”. Then explain this in a greater detail by setting
out the final order/decree given by the Court. Be sure to also include what level of court the case was heard
at (i.e., Trial Court, High Court, Supreme Court, Family Court, City Civil Court). The conclusion is simply
meant to wrap up the research you have done and phrase the decision in a succinct manner. The findings
should be clear and provide a logical roadmap to how they were arrived at.

Include your own reasoned conclusion in this part.

New issues should not be raised here as they should have been discussed in the analysis. The conclusion
section is typically short because you are simply summarizing the decision and what the next steps are, if
any.

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