REVIEW OF

PREVIOUS LESSON
WHAT IS LEGAL WRITING?
Legal Writing is the discipline governing the manner, style and
form of writing legal articles, correspondence, opinions, papers
and more importantly court-bound documents. Court-bound
documents refer to pleadings such as petitions or complaints,
answers, reply, as well as motions that are filed before the proper
court.
WHAT IS LEGAL RESEARCH?
Legal Research is concerned with the process of
providing information to a query. It is principally
concerned with gathering information
(jurisprudence, provision of law, or an
administrative issuance) that would provide
illumination to a pending issue.
 STAGES OF
LEGAL WRITING
TWO STAGES OF LEGAL WRITING
First Stage. PRE-WORK
Second Stage. WRITE-UP.
 PRE-WORK
Five Levels
(1) Establishing where the legal dispute lies in the case;
(2) Discovering the relevant facts;
(3) Knowing the laws or rules that apply;
(4) Identifying the issue/s to be addressed; and
(5) Roughing out the arguments to be used
WRITE-UP
Transformation of the sketches and outlines
produced during pre-work into a full draft of the
paper - a pleading, legal opinion, a petition, a
comment, a memorandum, a position paper or
even a decision.
THE PHILIPPINE
LEGAL SYSTEM
Political Structure of the Philippines
The Philippine political structure is composed
of three (3) equal and coordinate branches of
the government - the legislative, the executive
and the judiciary.
 CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSIONS
The Philippines also has three (3)
Constitutional Commissions:
(1) Civil Service Commission (CSC)
(2) Commission on Elections (COMELEC)
(3) Commission on Audit (COA)
READING AND ANALYZING
JURISPRUDENCE
Reading Jurisprudence
A decision is generally composed of an
introduction, the body and the dispositive
portion.
RESEARCH
SOURCES
SOURCE OF LAWS
In the Philippine setting, the sources of laws are
the enactments of Philippine Congress known
today as Republic Acts. These are numbered
according to the sequence in which they were
passed and signed into law by the President.
SOURCE OF LAWS
Prior to the 1987 Constitution, our legislative body
was called Batasan Pambansa - a unicameral
parliament and its enactments were designated
as Batas Pambansa or B.P.
- Example: B.P 22
SOURCE OF LAWS
Jurisprudence refers to the body of decisions
promulgated by the Supreme Court. This is
referred to as the case law.
- Pro hac vice decisions
SOURCE OF LAWS
The Philippine Constitution referred to as the
fundamental law of the law.

Statutes (laws) are those enacted by the

Congress.
SOURCE OF LAWS
Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs)
refer to administrative issuances by a
government body or agency that implements
the provisions of the law.
Example: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
SOURCE OF LAWS
Legal References refer to secondary sources of
authority such as a law dictionary, law
encyclopedia, law journals and reviews, legal
treatises, and annotated works.
SOURCE OF LAWS
Non-legal Sources refers to materials that are
basically devoid of a legal nature - not a law,
decision or a government issuance.
Examples are news reports, speeches, articles,
opinions, and technical reports.
RESEARCH
SOURCES
 GOOGLE
WEB SEARCH
GOOGLE (REGULAR) (www.google.com)
This is the “regular” Google that we all use
GOOGLE BOOKS (https://books.google.com)
This is the search engine that allows you to look through Google's huge
collection of digitized full-text books.
GOOGLE SCHOLAR (https://scholar.google.com)
Google Scholar collects and gives you access to a huge number of scholarly
works, including full-text articles and books.
GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCH
(https://www.google.com/advanced_search)
The Google Advanced Search page gives you the capability to create effective
and efficient searches without having to use the Google shortcuts.

With this search page, you can limit your search by language, file type (.jpg,
.pdf, etc) and date range, as well as searching for similar pages, or websites
from a particular geographical region.
 REFINING
WEB SEARCHES
Searching for “an exact match”
If you want to search for an exact match then make sure to enclose the
keywords in quotation marks.
Searching for a “specific site”
If you want to search in a specific site or domain then you can use the site:
prefix in the beginning of your Google Search.
“Exclude” words from search
You can define keywords you wish to exclude from search results using a
hyphen (-). This operator is usually useful when keywords have multiple
meanings.
“Include” words from search
Common words such as “a” and “the” are called stop words and are usually
ignored. Use the plus operator (+) to include those words in the result set.
Finding “synonyms” of keywords
You can find synonyms of keywords by adding a tilde (~) in front of a word.
The *asterisk wildcard
The engine treats asterisk (*) as placeholders for unknown search terms.
The *asterisk wildcard
Search within a range of numbers
If you are looking for a product on Google and want to set a specific price
range. Operator (..) can be used between two numeric values and denotes the
corresponding numeric range.
Combine multiple queries
You can use “OR” operator to combine multiple search queries. In the same
way, you can use “AND” to request the union of all sub-queries separated by
the operator.
Search specific file types
If you want to narrow down your search so that only pdf documents are
included then filetype operator will do the trick.

The right syntax is <search query> filetype:<filetype>.

Searching for definitions
define: operator gives you access to Google Search Definitions. On top of the
results a native section will include the term definition and the phonetic
pronunciation.
Finding related websites
related:example.com operator followed by a website address will get you
results from sources whose content is related. Make sure not to include a
whitespace between the operator and the web address otherwise it will have
no effect at all.
Search ‘titles’
If you want the results to contain only documents that have at least one of
your search keywords in their title then use the notation intitle:<search
terms>.
Search for specific location
To find news or information within a specific location make sure that the
keywords are followed by location:<country/city>.
Doing “MATH” in your search box
You can do basic calculations directly in your google search bar.
Convert units in Google Search
You can do unit/currency conversions directly in your google search bar.
Time in a different country
Sunrise and Sunset
Checking Flight Status
THE FACTS OF
THE CASE
Facts of a Case
Facts are the “who, when, what , where and why” of the case.
Do not merely copy the facts in verbatim; not every detail is important.
Instead, include only the relevant facts.
How to decide if a particular fact is relevant?
Ask yourself whether a particular fact is important to the court’s
decision or if the decision of the court would have been different if a
particular fact was omitted or changed.
MAKING A SUMMARY
Random Notes vs. Summary
Making a summary compresses the information needed. It compels
one to go through an item of fact and assess its importance and
relevance to the issues in the case, and to decide whether to keep it in
or throw it out of the summary.

“What is the significance of this fact to the case?”

Facts seen through the Issue
When handling a new case, whatever stage you may find it, you need
to go over the materials very quickly and determine preliminarily the
principal issue or issues involved in the case. This is the key to
pre-work.
Only when one has an idea of what the principal issue is, could one
make a good job at extracting the relevant facts from the materials.
Sample Case: “THE BEERS WAR”
Link: https://rb.gy/u1j6ef

Complete the sentence:

The case is about….
The case is about…
The facts of The Beers War spoke only of “one” case
that developed among the parties involved.
The suit filed by the restaurant owner filed against San
Miguel Brewery for the injury he suffered in the hands
of an outraged customer who was served with a
pest-laden bottle of beer.
Extracting the Relevant Facts
How to make a complete summary of raw data?
Take out the non-essential facts from your written
materials. Cross out the non-essential facts, leaving
only the essential ones.
Sample Bar Exam Question
Section 10 of Ordinance No. 105 of Tagaytay City provides that at least
5% of the total area of any memorial park established within its
jurisdiction shall set aside for charity burial of its pauper residents and
that no permit to establish, operate and maintain a private memorial
park shall be granted without the applicant’s conformity or agreeing to
such conditions.
The City argues that it is within its powers to pass such ordinance; that
the ordinance is a valid exercise of police power; and that the portion
taken is for public use, the same being intended for paupers pursuant
to its duty to provide for the health and safety of its inhabitants.
Discuss the constitutionality of the said ordinance.
Sample Bar Exam Question
What is the principal issue?
Discuss the constitutionality of the ordinance
i.e. “whether or not it violates the right that it seeks
to regulate - the right of the owner to his land.”

Use this issue in identifying the relevant facts in

relation to the principal issue.
Sample Bar Exam Question
Section 10 of Ordinance No. 105 of Tagaytay City provides that at least
5% of the total area of any memorial park established within its
jurisdiction shall set aside for charity burial of its pauper residents and
that no permit to establish, operate and maintain a private memorial
park shall be granted without the applicant’s conformity or agreeing to
such conditions.
The City argues that it is within its powers to pass such ordinance; that
the ordinance is a valid exercise of police power; and that the portion
taken is for public use, the same being intended for paupers pursuant
to its duty to provide for the health and safety of its inhabitants.
Discuss the constitutionality of the said ordinance.
Sample Bar Exam Question
Section 10 of Ordinance No. 105 of Tagaytay City provides that at
least 5% of the total area of any memorial park established within
its jurisdiction shall set aside for charity burial of its pauper
residents and that no permit to establish, operate and maintain a
private memorial park shall be granted without the applicant’s
conformity or agreeing to such conditions.
The City argues that it is within its powers to pass such ordinance; that
the ordinance is a valid exercise of police power; and that the portion
taken is for public use, the same being intended for paupers pursuant
to its duty to provide for the health and safety of its inhabitants.
Discuss the constitutionality of the said ordinance.
Summary
The ordinance requires memorial parks to
give away to the poor 5% of their land area
as a condition for the grant of permit to
operate.

Case link: https://rb.gy/9si3ky

Extracting the Relevant Facts
First, identify the legal dispute.
Second, rewrite the legal dispute in the format of an
issue.
Third, extract the relevant facts in relation to the
principal issue.
Fourth, organize the facts in proper order or sequence
Benefits of arranging the facts in proper order or sequence
(1) The facts are easier to understand when put in the order of
time.
(2) How each fact relates or connects with others is easily shown;
(3) When the factual versions of either side are put in order and
matched, it is easier to see the areas where the respective
versions agree and disagree;
(4) Facts, properly arranged, prepare one for the work of writing
up the facts of the case in your pleading or memorandum.
Benefits of arranging the facts in proper order or sequence
Making a summary of your materials and arranging them in the
proper sequence enables you to create a compact index to the
facts of the case, including testimonies and documents worked on.
With a compact summary, there is no need to re-read voluminous
materials each time to be reminded of the important details of a
case. The summary will be the map in guiding you in the course of
the trial of the case and even during appeals.
Organizing the Facts of the Case
Organizing cluttered facts from raw data.
➢ Identify the relevant facts
➢ Organize the facts in sequence
Link: https://rb.gy/u1j6ef