HOW TO ANSWER QUESTION ON A LEGAL PROBLEM

HOW TO ANSWER QUESTION ON A LEGAL PROBLEM

1. Material facts
2. Legal issue
3. Law and/or Legal principle (Ratio decidendi)
4. Apply the law to the facts
5. Reach a decision

Material Facts

Ü  Not all facts will be relevant. Only the material facts will be of legal importance.

Ü  From the material facts, you should be able to identify the area of law to which the problem relates

Ü  Unless you know your material well, you may encounter difficulty in first separating material facts from those which have little significance and second, identifying the relevant area of law

Your answer should clearly state the relevant issues

Legal Issues

Ü  After identifying the material facts and the relevant area of law, you then need to identify the specific legal issue (or issues) to which the material facts relate.

Ü  For example, certain facts provided may lead you to the conclusion that the general issue is whether or not the parties have entered a contract. The specific issue may be whether or not an agreement has been concluded

Law &/or Legal Principle

Ü  Provide a legal definition

Ü  Set out a statement of the relevant legal principles as they affect the issue(s)

Ü  Problems questions can & often do call on students to address more than one legal principle in a problem question.

Ü  The relevant law may be legislative based or it may be from a common law authority (or both)

Ü  Where possible, support your statement of the law by quoting the relevant section of the Legislation Act or a case law authority as the case may be.

Ü  Generally, there is no need to discuss the facts on which the case authority is based

Ü  Stating the ratio and naming the case will generally be sufficient

Apply the Principles of law to the facts

Ü  This is one of the most important parts of answering a problem question and as such, a majority of your marks will come from how you apply the law to the facts at hand.

Ü  Sometimes the facts will be near identical to the precedent case making it impossible to distinguish the facts of the problem question

Ü  In other cases, you may find the facts are slightly different or even ambiguous.

Ü  In these cases, you should consider the range of all possibilities

Ü  Where you believe more information is necessary to give a more complete answer, say so.

Ü  Where two answers are possible depending on the further information, indicate the range of possibilities

Conclusion

Ü  State your conclusion

Ü  Remember, there is frequently no ‘right’ answer or conclusion.

Ü  When stating your conclusion, indicate the facts from the problem question that persuade you a particular result is the correct one

Final comments on answering problem questions

Ü  The aim of a problem question is to test how well you can apply the knowledge you have acquired to a set of facts.

Ü  You must discuss all legal issues raised on the facts by applying the relevant law.

Ü  It is not uncommon for students to take a different view of the facts.

Ü  Accordingly, students who identify and discuss all the legal issues by reference to the correct legal principles but draw different conclusions may still obtain the same high mark

Ü  Exception is where an incorrect conclusion is drawn in circumstances where only one is possible

Ü  Remember to apply legal (not moral) principles to the facts