{"id":330,"date":"2024-10-30T11:57:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T11:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/law-study-skills\/?p=330"},"modified":"2024-10-30T11:57:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T11:57:50","slug":"approaching-legal-problem-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/law-study-skills\/2024\/10\/30\/approaching-legal-problem-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Approaching…Legal Problem Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A quick glance at any website or online forum dedicated to law students will reveal that most students are weary of problem questions. How to read them, how to interpret them, how to answer them. This need not be so. This blog will encourage you to take legal problem questions in your stride and show you that not only can you easily address legal issues, but you can actually enjoy <\/em>solving them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A problem scenario is not an essay<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most important point to keep in mind is that a problem question tests different skills than an essay question. Perhaps you enjoyed English or Philosophy A Level and you now long to write essays demonstrating the breadth of your new legal knowledge. Unfortunately, a problem question is not the forum for this! Some students like to equate it with the \u201csource work\u201d questions common to subjects like History and Politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topic and issues you need to discuss are all there in the scenario in front of you. For any budding legal practitioners, this is exciting as it replicates the process involved in advising a real-life client. A client does not wish to know the former legal test and when it was overruled, for example, or the academic commentary on the merits of a particular piece of legislation. They want to know what the law is now<\/em> and how it will apply<\/em> to them. Being concise and succinct in your writing is key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the question fully and plan, plan, plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To end up with concise and succinct writing, planning is key. When confronted with a long and detailed scenario, you may feel overwhelmed. If there are several parties in the scenario, start by writing their names on a page. Who is the claimant? Who is the defendant? Who is the victim? Identifying the parties will engage the logical part of your brain, allowing you to allocate legal issues to each person as you come across them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay attention to the question you are asked at the bottom of the scenario. Is it a wide-ranging, \u2018discuss the potential liability of X\u2019 question, or are you asked to focus on particular individuals or issues? This will help you to sort out the relevant information from the irrelevant details as you re-read the scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRAC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Any textbook or resource on tackling problem questions will mention a technique. Whilst you may come across various acronyms, QUB\u2019s recommended form is IRAC<\/strong> \u2013 which stands for Issue, Rule(s), Application and Conclusion. This is a helpful tool that you should memorise and employ regularly. It will ensure that your answer covers all the relevant grounds and that you don\u2019t waste time on irrelevant commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of IRAC as a cycle which you need to perform constantly throughout your answer and not as an overall structure. Ideally, you should perform the cycle in every paragraph to address the issues and sub-issues that you see arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n