Outline
A legal opinion is an opinion that has its basis in law through which courts operate. There are various kinds of legal opinions that differ depending on their supporters as well as their specific countries of origin, resulting in different kinds of information altogether. In the UK as well as other countries making use of common law, legal opinions refer to the advice on the law given by a barrister or a law officer holding a senior position in government. Examples of legal opinions from which information is derived include; dissent, majority, concurring, and plurality legal opinions.
Information Contained in a Legal Opinion
According to (Posner,1988), a legal opinion is an explanation written by judges to accompany the ruling of cases, stating principles of law as well as rationale on which their ruling was based. For opinions to be published there must be a direction by the court and they should state what law constitutes as well as reasons for a particular decision by judges. The purpose of legal opinions is to overturn, change, reinforce and establish legal precedent. Once an opinion is passed by the law court for publication, it gets included in one of the volumes of law reports. In the US it is referred to as reporters while legal opinions that have been published are collectively called case law, which is a major source from which law is refereed, in legal systems of common law.
However, a legal opinion can also be from attorneys with different information from that of judges. Attorney’s legal opinion contains a formal statement to the client showing what a lawyer considers as law, how it’s interpreted by courts as well as its application in a client’s circumstances.
Information contained in legal opinions also varies in accordance with their different types. They include majority opinions applied in law, which is an opinion by the judicial, supported by most court members. This particular legal opinion shows what a court has decided and explains principles upon which the court bases its decision. (Epstein, 1996)
Another kind of legal opinion is the dissenting that gives information on how judges disagree with the court’s majority opinion and how it has been judged. This particular opinion is not included in case law but regarded as authority that
is persuasive, in cases where it argues about the overturning or limitation of court’s holdings. However, a dissent is sometimes used to fix some changes in the legal system where a majority opinion is written regarding the same law that had been cited by an earlier case’s dissent. More information of legal opinion can be derived from plurality opinion written by justices in a court of appellate, showing rejection of an opinion by majority and leaving it to be determined by a court’s plurality. In this case the legal opinion shows lack of support by half the number of justices in court but is highly supported than other opinions in court at that particular time. (Posner, 1988)
A legal concurring opinion which is written by judges shows the support given by court’s majority though in a manner that is quite different. Different reasons for supporting a particular opinion are given, reflecting on the basis on which those judges make decisions.
In cases where an opinion lacks a court’s majority support, concurring opinions forms courts decisions. Information of a legal opinion can also be derived from a legal memorandum opinion, which is an opinion by judges but does not form a part of persuasive, precedent or mandatory. A legal memorandum opinion gives announcements of case judgments but its acceptance in case law depends on its kind of decision. Case law in which some of the legal opinions are cited refers to rules as well as principles of law, formulated in legal opinions from the law courts. In some cases, some particular information is deleted so as to have business information that is confidential protected, and is therefore put in brackets form. (Epstein, 1996)
References
Epstein L. (1996): The Supreme Court Compendium’s Press pp. 12-15.
Posner R. (1988): Law and Literature: Harvard University Press pp. 17-20.