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TIPS ON DIGESTING CASES

You can never escape digesting cases in the College of Law. The objective in digesting cases isto discover how the law was applied. Your professor is less interested in the brilliancy of thelawyer or the parties involved or how they won or lost their case. What matters is how theSupreme Court resolved the issues.

1. DO NOT DIGEST UNLESS YOU KNOW THE CODAL PROVISION. It's a total waste of time. Onthe contrary, if you know what the law requires, it is easy to determine if the parties obeyedor disobeyed the law. The Court always sides with the party who obeyed the law.

2. DO NOT DIGEST CASES SINGLY. Groups of cases must be digested together because theyall apply the same law - sometimes in contrasting manner. Spend the most time thoroughlydigesting the first in a batch of cases. Succeeding cases will simply re-apply the sameprinciple. However, look out for reversals of rulings.

3. LOOK AT THE DATES. PRIORITIZE DIGESTING LATER CASES. Chances are, the latest casewill contain a recitation of earlier cases - already digested by the ponente (the justice whoactually writes the text of the decision). Not only that - usually, the ponente will compare andcontrast related cases, saving you a lot of time in case you cannot read the full text of theoriginal decision. But set apart a time to read the original cases anyway.

4. USE BLOCK DIAGRAMS TO REPRESENT THE PARTIES. Reduce the long list of parties into "Ffiled an action against C" etc. regardless of how long the full name of F or C is. Make a mentalchart of who filed the original case and then trace it from there - who won in the originaljurisdiction, it is always the loser who appeals if the case was resolved normally. But 80% ofcases reaching the Supreme Court are pre-emptive; filed by one of the parties before a finaldecision is reached below. But just the same, the party that goes to the Supreme Court iseither the losing party of the party about to lose. Jump to the dispositive portion and see if the

petitioning party was successful or not. Then reconstruct the arguments in between, using thesyllabus of the case (the first portion of every SCRA (text) as aid.

5. AT THE VERY LEAST, DIGEST AT LEAST ONE CASE FROM EVERY SECTION OF THE COURSEOUTLINE. It is not the number of cases you digested that matters but the coverage. You mustdigest at least one case for every pertinent provision of law. Two, if you have the time. Three,

if you anticipate a graded recitation.

6. SEEK AN OPPORTUNITY TO DISPLAY WHAT YOU LEARNED. If you are called for a recitationon a case you did not digest, offer to recite on another cases (most professors will allow that,so long as you offer to recite on the same subject matter.) The point is, let the professor knowthat you attempted to understand the principle at work. If embarrassed, do not sulk. Listen tothe person reciting - their digest may be correct and if it is, it will definitely come out in the

exams.

7. DO NOT DEVOUR ALL FACTS. YOU DO NOT NEED THEM. You can try applying the reverseanalysis approach. Look at the ruling and then find out how the Court arrived at the ruling.The Supreme Court throws out many irrelevant facts because it is not a trier of facts. Do nottry to smell out every fact if it did not even concern the Justices.

8. REMEMBER THE "ANGLE OF CONCERN". If you are digesting for a Constitutional Lawsubject, ignore the issues that do not concern you. Read the case with particular interest onhow the Constitution was applied. Ditto for other subjects.

9. KEEP YOUR DIGESTS. YOU WILL DEFINITELY ENCOUNTER THE SAME CASES IN YOURHIGHER YEARS. Most cases involve various aspects of the law. So the cases you digested inPersons are most likely the same ones you will read in Wills and Succession. Your "angle ofconcern" will be different of course, but you will save a lot of time if you are familiar with thefacts already.

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How To Digest Cases

1. Be aware of the specifics of the case or the syllabus concerned . In one case alone, there

could be multiple topics i.e. Political Law, Remedial Law, Civil Law and there could be as many

sub-topics i.e. for Political Law there could be Police Power and Eminent Domain. Knowing these

can properly guide you with the theme of your digests. But usually, you will not have a hard time

with this because once cases are assigned; your professor would have specified these in his

handouts.

2. Read the full text of the case. And when I say read, dont just breeze through it. Try to

understand it the first time. This will save you time because if you understood it on the first

reading, you wont have to keep going back just to read it all over again. Highlighting important

texts of the case which are related to the topic youre on will help you have a coherent grasp of

the case.

3. Now after reading the case in full, youre now ready towrite your case digest. In a formal

case digest, there are five parts which are:

CaptionThis is just the title of the case. It can be as plain as People vs Juan de la Cruz

or detailed to include the SCRA number, GR number, ponente and the date.

FactsThis portion is to supposed to answer the Who, What, When, How, Why stuff of the

case.

Issues This is the legal conflict or the legal controversy sought to be resolved by the

Supreme Court.

Ruling This is the decision or jurisprudence laid down by the court.

Concurring/Dissenting Opinions These are not always present in all cases and normally

they do not place any significance to the current ruling being discussed (but they may servea significant role in future Supreme Court decisions especially when doctrines are reversed

or totally abandoned). These opinions may also be an additional explanation as to how

certain justices voted, the wisdom behind their votes, and as to how the decision is reached.

Be very wary because some professors would also ask questions pertaining to these

opinions especially when such opinions are adopted as the general rule in some future

cases.

(Ill discuss this part, a to e, in more detail in an upcoming article).

4. Other things you may want to consider may include: how your professor conducts recitation,

is your professor more of a facts guy or a court ruling guy; either way, you can custom make

your digests in a way that will make you remember the facts and the jurisprudence of the case.

Some students prefer replacing the characters with letters like X and Y but that may not sit

well with other professors especially if they are meticulous with the facts of the case.

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TIPS

a. Taxation

mamalateo - philippine income tax, reviewer in taxation (especially kung prof mo sya)

de leon

b. Labor Standards and Relations

azucena

c. Corporate Law

campos (2 volumes)

d. Civil Procedure

regalado (volume 1)

riano

e. Criminal Procedure

agpalo

f. Special Proceedings

none - codal and cases lang

pwede rin regalado, though, kung meron ka na nung volume 2 nya.

g. Evidence

riano

regalado (volume 2)

h. Banking Laws

did not take it up. pero yung mga enrolled sa class na yun, gamit nila yung book ni prof

morales, who teaches the class.

1. take down notes - do this while you're studying for class, and not just when you'reactually in class. it gives you more chances to go through the material morethoroughly. you don't want to copy an entire case, so you'll be forced to write downonly the important things. that means you'll be giving yourself the chance to distilldoctrines and rules out of cases. that involves a lot of thinking. and it's great practiceon how to think like a lawyer. it's also a helpful way to dissipate excess energy that

you might be tempted to use on fruitless activities that tend to distract, like playingfacebook games. lastly, it gives you a chance to practice your handwriting. as it isnow, forty percent of the bar score will come from the essay portion. if an examinercan't read your handwriting, then you flunk. it's that simple.

while in class, also take notes obsessively. it serves the same purpose as thosementioned already, with the added benefit of having a record of what the professorthinks about a certain legal issue. it gives you a valuable clue as to what kind ofquestions will be asked in the final exams. as a general rule, law professors tend toask more exam questions on issues that they think are important. and such issues are

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the ones they spend more time discussing.

2. read the cases - this is obvious. but let me add that cases are not assigned for yourentertainment. so don't dwell on the facts too much, no matter how interesting.

they're important only insofar as they show you how the law is actually applied to areal-life situation. when you read a case, your mind must have a singular focus: whatrule can you extract from the case? it's hard, but try not to be bored when you find

that a case is just a straightforward application of a rule that is already crystal clear onthe face of the statute, or it merely reiterates the doctrine in other cases. it's still goodto read it because it helps you to remember how the legal provision or doctrine works,and necessarily, what it says. this is why UP students can afford to spend little time

memorizing codal provisions, because they already know the substance of theprovisions from the cases. they just have to find the right words.

3. memorize and understand the codals - having said what i said in the last paragraph,it is still very very important to memorize what the codal provisions say. you don'thave to memorize all provisions word-for-word (well, some have to be memorized

verbatim. a lot, actually. most of the time, you'll know which ones). you cannot expectall possible issues that may arise in a provision to be covered by jurisprudence. soread and re-read your codal before anything else. as dean carlota would say,repetition is the key (he's one of the most brilliant professors in the college. take his

classes before you graduate!). this is what you will get tested on in the bar and duringyour exams.

codal = a law school word for a book containing the provisions of statutes or rules. halimbawa,ang codal sa criminal law class eh revised penal code (black), sa contitutional law class ehsyempre constitution (red), sa tax, national internal revenue code (green), etc.

digest = a summary of a case, usually divided into sections (eg facts, issues, ruling) to makeit easier for the reader to understand the casePrimary reference material for laws can be divided in two: statutes and jurisprudence.Statutes are all those stuff like the constitution and legislative enactments e.g. republic act

xxxx, jurisprudence on the other hand is case law i.e. stuff written by the courts/judiciary.Codals refer to statutory law reference material.

Digests on the other hand is an executive summary/abstract of a given case.read the case outline and see what subtopic the case is assigned under. read only the portionwhich is pertinent to that topic. ignore the other portions, or read them only when they willhelp you understand the portion that you need. most of the time, it's pretty obvious what partyou need just by looking at the case syllabus. for example, many cases talk about how apetition or appeal should be dismissed because the appellant/petitioner used the wrongremedy. that won't mean anything to you as a first year student. skip that.

after reading, extract the case doctrine (ie the rule that the case lays down) and try to putthat in one or two sentences. write down the doctrine in your course outline, or in the margins

of the case itself, or in a notebook. personally, i prefer making marginal notes before class,then re-write the case doctrine as we go along with class discussion.