What Is A Criminal Law Attack Outline
The criminal law attack outline is a tool used by legal professionals to organize and clarify legal arguments or defenses. It essentially breaks down complex legal issues into manageable segments, guiding the legal professional in developing a trajectory for their argument and in identifying crucial aspects of the law for their case.
For example, if I decided that I needed to challenge the criminal law of murder in order to effectively defend my client in a murder trial, I would undertake the criminal law attack outline of the crime of homicide in the state of Virginia, which includes murder, manslaughter, vehicular homicide, etc . The criminal law attack outline would break each of these crimes down by identifying any constitutional issues that may arise with the crime, relevant statutes, case law, legislative intent, and statutory rules of construction and application, as well as punishment, culpability, and defenses.
This helps me narrow down the scope of my argument and find possible approaches to making the argument stronger, but only because I identify and address possible flaws because I have the outline in front of me – an outline that was created specifically for the crime of murder.
Because of this very detailed nature, the criminal law attack outline is not used in a formal legal setting, such as court. Instead, it is used in the preparation of court. In short, the outline is a tool, and is extremely effective.
Essential Elements of a Criminal Law Attack Outline
The initial component of a criminal law attack outline is charge analysis. A charge is the violation of a statute by an accused in committing a criminal act and the state has an obligation to attach the appropriate charge to a person suspected of breaking the law. The charges attached to a listed violation inform the accused as to the specific violation being alleged, and, as the focus of the case, the accused needs to review what these charges are to determine if the current charges are sufficient. Another core component of a criminal law attack outline is legal definitions. Legal definitions are those specific terms that are implicated in a statute and the scope and applicable exclusions provided for. The objective in determining the relevant legal definitions is mostly to inform the accused as to the particular words or descriptions that the court is likely to agree are involved within the context of the statute. In some cases, the legal definitions will expand the scope of the charges included under the statute in order to provide the accused with a fair idea of what they are being charged with. Elements of an offense is the third core component of a criminal law attack outline. Elements of an offense are those factual components that are required to be proven by the state in order to guilt the accused for the listed violation. Each element of an offense does not necessarily have to be deemed true by both the state and the accused but should have become true in order to confirm that the offense has been successfully established. Failure in proving one of the elements of an offense is a common basis for which an accused will challenge their charges in court.
How To Create An Outline: A Step-By-Step Guide
Law school exams are daunting enough, but creating a criminal law attack outline (or any attack outline) can be very confusing if you don’t know what to do. In this post, we will walk you step by step through how to create a criminal law exam attack outline.
When you start your outline, pick a casebook and a syllabus that is representative of your professor, as well as whatever else you usually read (doctrinal outline, commercial outlines, etc.). You will then gradually begin adding case names from the actual cases so that whichever way the professor chooses to ask questions, you will be prepared. Eventually, you should also add your professor’s actual exam questions. This should be done chronologically based on the time you first receive the case name.
When you want to read a new case, find the case name on the outline, and click on it. This will lead you to a court opinion, or to an explanation of the fact, issues and holdings. Be sure to add any relevant information to the outline, such as key terms, and where the variables apply, in order to avoid having to keep scrolling around the outline later.
Even if you have totally different outline styles, there is no reason to skip over the style we use for our online attack outlines. The following is a basic hierarchy for what to do when creating an examination attack outline.
You can pick different topic titles based on the wording of your exam outline, and you can arrange paragraphs based on how your professor likes to ask questions. Following this organizational guide with your own variations gives you a lot of flexibility.
If you don’t have a clear attack outline from an exam or practice exam, find at least twelve old exams, or a mixture of old exams and practice exams. Then go back to the current outline and start adding colors according to the rubric you created. There are lots of ways to highlight paragraphs, but some of the most popular ones include highlighting cases important for that topic, distinguishing them from similar cases, and using color codes to separate basic principles from exceptions.
Common Mistakes and Issues
The most common problem encountered in creating an effective criminal law attack outline is when the lawyer’s zeal causes him to miss the forest for the trees. It is a real danger of outlines that they try to be broader than they ought to be. The trap is set when a lawyer puts into the outline every possible issue and rule that seems somewhat related and is of interest, rather than limiting him- or herself to those issues and rules necessary to reaching a conclusion on the attack being considered. To most effectively use this method, it is essential that the lawyer carefully consider what the issue being attacked is, what the holding of the case being used as authority is, and what rules are necessary to apply that holding to the case being attacked.
Another common issue that arises in criminal law attack outlines is the knee-jerk creation of an outline for each possible type of attack (e.g. jurisdiction, service of process, venue, etc.,). Rather than putting all of the issues into a single outline that concisely applies the issues, rules, and conclusions as to the attack, the lawyer keeps creating separate outlines that limit themselves to a single attack, without regard for the overlap inherent in the facts, issues, rules, and conclusions. This causes the work product to double-count rules and sometimes even conclusions, which wastes time and effort and creates opportunities for missing an issue or misapplying a rule or conclusion due to different wording in the separate outlines.
A solution to both of these problems is to not limit the outline to mere legal issues. Altering the outline to make use of the hierarchy of the law also can help. As Supreme Court Justice David Easton noted in his seminal work The Political System (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953), "law is politics." This is no less true today. Laws and rules are frequently dependent upon the interpretation of the people who make or enforce them. Further, the process by which they are put into effect is in and of itself political. For these and other reasons, thinking of the situation in terms of flow-downs and flow-ups can be quite helpful. To illustrate the point, consider the following example of criminal law attack outline brought up earlier:
What type of issue do we have?
What kind of flow down issues do we have?
1. Type of provision, what kind of state statute
Because the provision at issue is a state statute, we see that only state law applies. Using the policies flow-down further limits the choice of law to state statutory law. While this may seem redundant since both choice of law questions deal with determining what kind of law applies, it is important for two reasons: (1) checks and balances, and (2) being able to look back at it later.
Examples and Illustrations
In order to really understand how a criminal law attack outline can make a difference in a criminal case, it’s best to look at a few cases where they have, and where they haven’t.
Case #1
I was defending a young man against a charge of making a terroristic threat in a county near me. His attorney had made all kinds of statements in public and on the facts of the case in the media that were completely untrue. My client was not allowed to discuss the admissibility of evidence with me because he was not charged yet. At the bond hearing, some of my client’s witnesses went uncalled, and instead his attorney had various family members testify in favor of him. The client is now looking at 10 years in prison, and is so poorly represented I hate to even think about it. Had my client and I made an attack outline together before court , I would have printed it out for him and told him: Just do what’s on this list. Bring these people to court with you. Tell them that you will be following this list. Bring this picture to court with you. Just tell them that you were not worried about this — that you found no evidence of weapon sales or terrorism threats. Sit in the back of the courtroom until called, then just tell the judge I will be following this list. This is the only way to win this case. I can guarantee it.
Case #2
The next case is one where my client was arrested for drug possession. My client was not present during the drugs being passed from people to cameras to cameras. My client was not physically in possession of the drugs. Because we had this list, we passed that to the prosecutor who passed that to the police officer. This attorney was successful in getting all charges dismissed as a trial attorney, so the prosecutor dismissed the case and the charges. That is the power of the criminal law attack outline.
An Advanced Guide for Practitioners
Experienced attorneys can employ a number of advanced techniques to optimize their criminal law attack outlines. Consider the following:
Technological Tools: Leveraging technology can be incredibly effective. For those who are comfortable with technology, using apps like Notability, Evernote, and Notion can be very helpful during trial preparation. Testimony that has already been hears or that you expect to hear should be recorded in Notability and Evernote. Evernote is like Dropbox but better because it allows you to search for words in PDF documents. Notion can help you create a to do list for trial or preparation for an argument, motion, brief or a number of different tasks.
Continuous Education: Continue to educate yourself on the latest techniques and best practices. Attend seminars, webinars, and conferences to learn from experts and peers. Pay close attention to how other attorneys structure their arguments and outlines to gather new ideas and strategies. Your best learning experience will be seeing your peers attack an issue. There is no better way to learn than to see what works and what does not work.
Collaboration: Collaborate with your colleagues and fellow attorneys. Share your outline with other attorneys to get their feedback and to familiarize them with your strategy. This helps to ensure that your entire team is on the same page and that everyone is comfortable when the issues present themselves during trial.
Final Thoughts: The Benefits of A Solid Outline
A well-prepared outline for attacking criminal charges can significantly affect the outcome of a trial. For one, it allows the team to focus its efforts where they are needed most, and deal with defenses that may otherwise cripple a case. Second, an outline is easy to manage once it is fine-tuned. The attorneys and paralegals can keep their efforts organized in a way a standard all-text battle plan cannot . Third, the attack outline affords the client the ability to witness what the criminal defense team is prepared to tackle. Otherwise, the client may know something isn’t right, but have no idea how to convey this knowledge to the lawyer.
In short, an attorney would be unwise to skip the process of formulating a criminal law attack outline. The benefits far outweigh the time consideration, and the prosecution typically prepares meticulously. The only way to have a fighting chance is to prepare in the same way.