Legal Memo Counter Argument

Keep in mind that the busy legal reader will appreciate the brevity in this section, so try to present only the facts that are legally important or necessary to clarify the issue. At the same time, remember that the memo should be a stand-alone document that can fully inform any colleague in your company who can read it. Therefore, the facts section should always contain a complete and consistent account of the relevant facts, whether or not the primary reader of the note already knows them (unless instructed otherwise). Instead of ignoring Dr. Meenhardt`s argument in your essay, you can instead treat it in a way that makes your own argument even more compelling! Here are some techniques for this: Counter-arguments are arguments that oppose your own arguments. For example, you could write an essay on employment law arguing that gig economy workers (e.g., Uber drivers) should be eligible for the Australian minimum hourly wage. Engaging with ideas that are opposed to your own will not only show that you fully understand the scientific debate on your topic, but will also give you the opportunity to strengthen your own assertion by undermining and formulating these counter-arguments for your own benefit. Using a counter-argument is a good way to convey that the existing legal authority is unclear, unambiguous or uniform when applied to facts like yours. You may not be able to predict the outcome of your case with certainty based on your facts. There may be competing lines of authority, competing political justifications, and/or a lack of cases in your jurisdiction. Using counter-arguments is also an effective way to address and then eliminate the views of those you disagree with. Or, if the counterargument can be dealt with quickly, you can also send it over the course of a single paragraph.

The following example paragraph comes from an essay on sports laws that argues that doping is a cultural problem in sport and not the fault of individual athletes who choose dope. The counter-argument is in green text. 9) It is useful for the reader to present the facts in an organizational pattern. In this note, the author addressed the heart of the incident – advertising, the sale of coats, the arrival of the unfortunate buyer – in the chronological order of the first paragraph; A second paragraph collects relevant background information about the customer. 12) Since writing memos is predictive writing, you should try to maintain an objective and unbiased tone while telling the facts. This is not to say that you should leave out the facts that have an emotional impact. On the contrary, the factual portion of a memorandum should not be written in a tone that expresses a preference for a particular theory of the case, implicitly advocates a disputing party, or telegraphs any of the legal conclusions to be drawn in the discussion section. Since you are not defending a page, you should not color or characterize the facts as you would if you were writing a letter. Also, do not comment on the facts in the facts section or discuss how the law applies to them. 1) The question submitted identifies the question(s) to which the memorandum is intended to answer: How does the relevant law apply to the main facts of the research problem? The question should be sufficiently narrow and objective.

Although the “Question Asked” section is short, it should (i) contain a concise reference to the legal claim and relevant doctrine, and (ii) contain the most legally important facts of your case. A comprehensive and balanced question is concise – it immediately goes to the heart of the legal question – and directs the reader to the real context. 16) If the rule statement serves as a thesis sentence for a longer discussion of a legal rule that has developed over time in a number of cases, the rule proof serves as an explanation and elaboration of that thesis sentence. The discussion section of a legal brief should be structured in the same way you would write a legal review. Just as with a legal review, you must assume that the reader has a basic understanding of the law (so you don`t have to explain basic legal principles), but that the reader does not know the exact legal rules and facts that your factual model is about. As in an audit, you should educate the reader on the applicable legal principles, illustrate how those principles apply to the relevant facts, and consider counter-arguments. That said, don`t invent a weak or crazy argument just to include a counter-argument in your essay – it will only make you look silly (and also undermine your claim). If you don`t know any valid arguments against your position, do more thorough research and consult with your teacher. Alternatively, just before concluding your essay, you can devote a short subsection to counter-arguments: 20) Using a counter-argument is a good way to make it clear that the existing legal authority is unclear, unambiguous, or uniform when applied to facts like yours.

You may not be able to predict the outcome of your case with certainty based on your facts. 5) Notice here how the author constructed the issue in this note to draw the reader`s attention to the following facts: description of the goods in a promotional bulletin, statement in the circular that the item is a “manufacturer`s closure”, statement in the circular that the early buyer will be rewarded. 8) The factual part contains all the factual premises on which your subsequent legal analysis is based. Of course, all the facts cited in the application section (the “A” in RAIC or CRRACC) of your discussion must be presented as part of the story told in the facts section. (4) The author of this note has been careful not to use language that presupposes an answer to the legal question he has raised. Since the question referred for a preliminary ruling seeks to clarify whether the facts indicate the existence of a formal offer of contract, you would not use the term `offer` to formulate the question, that is: They would not write: “Does an advertising circular describing goods constitute an offer when it offered the goods for sale at a particular time?” because the wording of the question is based on a legal conclusion – that the conduct in question meets the requirements of an offer.