Cartoonist: Dioscoro Nuñez III

If law school is a warfield, you don’t rush into its incursions with a rusty knife or a gun with no ammo. You bring the best weapon of choice: one that saves you from the attacks, one that leaves you unscathed from the blows. 

Here, cases are one of your best defenses. Jurisprudence gives weight to your examination answers as much as it gives substance to your regular oral recitations. By breaking down lengthy information into three categories (facts, issue/s and ruling), case digesting is a much-needed skill for a student of the law. It is a learning strategy, a kind of outline by means of highlighting only the most relevant information.  However, beca use of factors that may affect one’s time management, you may be tempted to make use of what’s readily available. For ease, you may be enticed by pre-posted online digested cases. Not to deny, it will save you some time. But for what cost?

There are a lot of sources for online case digests. They are posted either by law firms, lawyers, instructors or fellow law students from eligible law schools. The patterns are mostly similar; but the lengths and the included information varies, creating a risk on your learning and understanding of the case. Specifically, here are some of the dangers you should look out for:

Unable to Spot Correct Issues. 

Multiple issues are common in most cases. A case may be mentioned not just in one subject, but in several. It is also possible that one case may have administrative, labor, criminal, or constitutional issues. 

For example, the landmark case of Cayetano v. Monsod (G.R. No. 100113, September 3, 1991) may not just be discussed in Constitutional Law, but also with Statutory Construction. The issues that may be found in this case may be several, which could produce not just a single online digest. Not being cautious enough, this may give rise to confusion, lack of comprehension, or to wrong citations. The focus on correct issue/s is/are missed. 

Missing Important Facts.

Usually, facts surrounding the circumstances of the case are lengthy and detailed. Not all of this information is substantial to the issue at hand. In online case digests, some features of the case are discarded, those which the writer thinks are irrelevant. This, sometimes, can be mislooked. Sometimes, even the important ones are left unnoticed. 

In criminal cases, the prosecution and the defense have different versions of the stipulated facts. Therein, there may be little to  no common ground. This is where hesitancy comes into play. In order to determine which of the parade of facts should be included, it’s always helpful to read the entirety of the case. 

Unable to Comprehend Fully.

Comprehension takes practice. There is no better practice than reading thick books and cases. By encountering the same words or doctrines again and again, your retention rate and familiarity of the concepts get higher. By being familiar, your ability to recall improves over time. For example, the considerations for valid qualification under the Equal Protection clause has been discussed and repeated in a plethora of cases involving Bill of Rights. Being acquainted with these again and again will help with its input on your memory. 

The thing about comprehending online case digests is that due to its limited discussion of concepts, it becomes a struggle to figure out why or how the Court came up with its final judgment. Compared to full texts or your own drafted digest, you organize sets of information in line with what you need. Your own topics, your own pace. 

Unable to Remember Details.

Unlike plain reading from online case digests, outlining your own may be tricky at first. Especially to a beginner, drafting a case digest is tough. It needs skills and attention to detail. Relative to the length and complexity of a case, making a shortened version is taxing to anyone. But then, it is an expected skill of a law student. It cannot be compromised. 

Case digesting, as a form of outline and synthesis, helps you organize and place pieces of information into an organization. There is no specific format in making one, it is for you to figure out what should be written and what should be not. In choosing the instant help of online case digests, you take a readied outline by someone else and fit your own standard to it. Your knowledge about the case is only curtailed to what’s in front of you, typically depriving you of more.  

Incorrect Answers.

As what was mentioned above, online case digests are written by various people with dissimilar backgrounds. It is safe to say that sometimes, these can lead to conflicting answers. One digest says the Court upheld the ordinance’s constitutionality but checking another from a different source tells you it is unconstitutional and deemed void. You check a third source and get confused some more. 

Usually, when law professors assign a case for a brief, it is in line with the topics to be covered in the next recitations or exams. This should be the center of your focus. One full text contained everything that is about the case, including the wisdom of the Court, the contentions of the parties, the procedural matters, the decisions of the lower courts and even concurring or dissenting opinions of the Associate Justices as to the final judgment. To pack all these in your digest is not a smart move. You should focus on the issue and select only the facts, applicable laws and doctrines, as well as how the Court managed to apply this to the case at hand. The rest of the information is only for your readings, make them supplementaries to the indispensable. 

In all of these disadvantages, there’s only one weapon that can be used against them: discipline. To teach oneself the dynamics of case digesting. To be patient enough with one’s own pace of learning. To recognize pitfalls and work on them. To challenge oneself to attain progress through challenging roadblocks. It is by these that the skill of case digesting will be easier. No one starts off being excellent. It is continuous effort that makes improvement. 

In between hard work and convenience, it is easy to succumb to the latter. In balancing work, personal life and law school, it is the challenge of time management and resilience that most grapple with. Nonetheless, it is hard to accept that choosing convenience comes with compromises. Don’t let that compromise be your regret in the future.  Embrace the complexities and the hustle. It’s all worth it in the end.