How to Organize Issues in an Outline
Make It Fit the Flow of a Case.
You need some way to organize the many rules that relate to any given issue. You might as well adopt the order that attorneys and judges expect for those rules. It helps to make you write and talk like a member of the profession. It gives you an automatic order for discussing things. It’s simple and works for most subject areas.
A case begins with the procedural things—service of process. And the first objections to the case fall into this realm as well—for example, a motion to dismiss based on the statute of limitations. Then we do discovery and trial, getting to the heart of proving the case by the plaintiff. The defendant will bear the burden of proof on any defenses, so those come next. Then, often at a separate and later hearing, the court turns to the question of appropriate remedies.
So the logical order of sub-issues within any given issue is:
Procedural rules
The merits (also called the prima facie case)
Defenses
Remedies
For example, if you were outlining adverse possession:
Adverse Possession
I. Procedural rules
a. Statute of Limitations
1. Tacking to meet the statute of limitations
II. The Merits
a. Actual possession
b. Open and notorious possession
c. Exclusive possession
d. hostile and under a claim of right
III. Defenses
a. Permission given
IV. Remedies
a. Change of title