Getting started with legal reasoning

1
Getting started with legal reasoning cases

• Soldano v. ODaniels, p. 13
• The Facts?
• But what are facts in a court?
• What are facts in general?
• Now, the facts in this case . . .
• Whoa! Trial court had granted a summary
  judgmentwhats that?

2
More on Soldano

• Is there a general legal duty to help others?
• If not, when IS there such a duty?
• Why did the intermediate Calif. Appeals court
  decide that there may have been a duty here?
• Some hypothetical twists
• Risk/utility or cost/benefit analysis

3
A Little About Precedent

• Does the decision in Soldano tell us what the law
  definitely is in the US?
• If not the US, how about CA?
• Precedent as a an anchor, but not a ball chain?
  predictability flexibility in the judge-made
  law
• More examples in Chp. 4 and throughout the course

4
Its Becoming a Small World Even in the Law

• Yahoo! v. La Lingue. . ., p. 16
• Facts
• Courts conclusions rationale
• Full Faith Credit vs. Comity
• Can you think of other instances in which a
  similar problem might arise?