Building a Case Brief

We'll use LawForge tools together to research a legal topic and build a comprehensive case brief. Our subject: qualified immunity in excessive force cases.

What You'll Need

• LawForge connected to Claude (see Your First Legal Search)
• About 15 minutes

What We're Building

A case brief covering:

• Issue — The legal question
• Key Cases — Landmark decisions
• Evolution — How the law has developed
• Current State — Where the law stands today

Step 1: Define the Research Question

Start by telling Claude what we want to research:

I'm researching qualified immunity in police excessive force cases. Help me understand the key cases and how the doctrine has evolved.

Claude will outline the research approach and begin searching.

Step 2: Find Landmark Cases

Now let's ask for the foundational cases:

Search for Supreme Court cases about qualified immunity

We'll discover key cases like:

• Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982) — Established the "clearly established law" standard
• Anderson v. Creighton (1987) — Applied qualified immunity to law enforcement
• Pearson v. Callahan (2009) — Modified the two-step analysis

Step 3: Deep Dive into a Key Case

Let's examine the foundational case:

Get the full text of Harlow v. Fitzgerald and summarize the key holdings

Claude retrieves the opinion and identifies:

• The objective "clearly established law" standard
• Rejection of the subjective good faith test
• Rationale for protecting government officials

Step 4: Trace the Citation Network

Let's see how Harlow influenced later cases:

Show me the most important cases that cite Harlow v. Fitzgerald

This reveals how courts applied and refined the doctrine, including:

• Cases that extended qualified immunity
• Cases that limited its application
• Circuit splits on interpretation

Step 5: Find Recent Developments

Legal doctrines evolve. Let's search for recent cases:

Search for Supreme Court qualified immunity cases from 2015 to present

We'll find recent decisions like:

• Taylor v. Riojas (2020) — Obviousness can establish violation
• McCoy v. Alamu (2021) — Video evidence in qualified immunity analysis

Step 6: Synthesize the Brief

Now let's ask Claude to put it all together:

Based on our research, create a case brief on qualified immunity in excessive force cases. Include the legal standard, key cases, and current state of the law.

Claude produces a structured brief with:

• Clear statement of the legal standard
• Chronological evolution through key cases
• Current circuit approaches
• Open questions in the doctrine

What We Covered

We used LawForge to conduct comprehensive legal research:

• Systematic searching — Finding cases by topic and time period
• Deep analysis — Reading full opinions for holdings
• Citation tracking — Understanding how law develops through precedent
• Synthesis — Combining sources into coherent analysis

Tips

1. Start broad, then narrow — Begin with general searches, then focus on specific issues
2. Follow the citations — Important cases cite important cases
3. Check recency — Law evolves; always verify current standards
4. Use multiple tools — Combine search, retrieval, and citation analysis

Next Steps

• Practice with your own research topic
• See How to Trace Case History for more on citation networks
• Read about Data Sources to understand what's covered