This chapter deals with the issue of facts in a legal case. Effective litigation requires close attention to establishing and analysing the facts relevant to a case, and an ability to understand and address the problems that dealing with facts can present. It is a vital function of the lawyer to be proactive in gathering, sifting, proving, and presenting the facts. The chapter discusses the challenges of establishing truth and ways to address problems with facts; establishing facts; the stages at which factual information is likely to become available (e.g. the first meeting between the lawyer and the client or following pre-action exchange of information); managing and analyzing facts; identifying and dealing with those gaps in facts; and the interaction of facts and law. The final section explains how to build a factual framework for a case.
Chapter
8. Establishing and Analysing Facts
Chapter
9. Making Best Use of Law to Define Issues
This chapter discusses the use of the legal knowledge in practice. A good general working knowledge of legal principles for effective legal practice should enable a lawyer to get initial ideas about the legal shape of a case so as to be able to draw up a proper research plan. Without a good general knowledge it can be difficult to know where to start, or to spot areas of a case that might require legal analysis. The chapter explains the use of practitioner sources (i.e. statutes and statutory instruments, case law, books and journals, online resources, and other lawyers); the importance of strategic legal research; planning research and presenting findings; the ways in which law is used in litigation; and combining law and fact to define a case. Once full analysis of facts and law has been put together to define a case, the resulting legal elements and the factual allegations that show the legal elements comprise the issues in the case. These issues are then the focus for all decisions on procedure and evidence, and for case management once proceedings are issued.
