Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co.
This is a famous case from the early 1960’s, which played an important part in establishing today’s consumer protection laws.
Read the case, then perform an IRAC brief of the case. IRAC is an acronym for Issue, Rule, Application and Conclusion.
https://youtu.be/82z9VBr9azE (how to do IRAC)
For this assignment:
Identify the main issue of the case. This should take only one substantive sentence.
State the rule of law governing the identified issue. Be detailed, and explain to the reader the elements of the law. The rule should be expressed in one substantive section.
Apply the law to the facts in the case. Here you, briefly tell the story of the parties. What did the defendant do to the plaintiff? Why, or why wasn’t it, legal? This section of your paper will be the most substantive, but should also be no more than a couple of paragraphs.
Conclusion. In your concluding paragraph, explain what the court arrived at for a decision (I.e. the courts holding), and the court’s rationale.
As you can see, legal writing is much more focused, and concise than traditional business writing. Your brief should not exceed 2-pages, but must be substantive enough that your reader will know the key issue, the rule of law, the facts and application of the law, and the conclusion.
For this assignment, you only need to perform one IRAC on the main issue of the case. Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. is a famous case, and you’ll find a lot written about it. It is OK to look at IRACs (or case briefs) written by others, since that is part of legal research.
However, your IRAC must be 100% original content. In other words, you cannot copy/paste another person’s work as your own.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Please note: I’m looking for a deeper level of analysis here than might be expected on a discussion board post. After all, this assignment is worth 20% of your final grade. Give it your best effort, and take your time.
