Examples of issue statements show how legal writers pack a controlling rule, a precise question, and the facts that matter into a form a judge or supervising attorney can read quickly. The samples below walk through the three common formats, five practice areas, and the difference between an objective version and a persuasive one, so you can see what each looks like side by side before drafting your own.
The Three Elements Every Example Contains
Before the examples make sense, it helps to name what you are looking at. Every well-drafted issue statement combines the same three pieces:
- The controlling law — the statute, constitutional provision, regulation, or common-law doctrine that governs the dispute.
- The legal question — the specific point the court must decide, narrow enough to produce a yes-or-no answer.
- The legally significant facts — the details that would change the outcome if they were different. Background that sets the scene but does not change the analysis belongs in the statement of facts, not here.
The test for a significant fact is simple. If you flipped it, would your answer to the legal question flip too? If yes, it goes in. If not, leave it out.
Examples by Format
Legal writers generally pick among three structural formats. Each arranges the same three elements in a different order.
The “Whether” Format
This format opens with the legal question and tucks the law and facts into a single sentence beginning with “Whether.” It works well in appellate briefs because the dispute lands immediately.
Example: “Whether a seller breached a requirements contract by failing to deliver 500 units of structural steel by the October 1 deadline after accepting a purchase order specifying time-is-of-the-essence delivery terms.”
The strength is directness. The weakness is that complex cases with multiple legal standards can turn the sentence unwieldy.
The “Under-Does-When” Format
This format leads with the controlling law, then poses the question, then supplies the facts. It is especially useful in internal memorandums, because establishing the standard first helps the reader evaluate the facts in context.
Example: “Under the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against warrantless searches of private premises, did an officer conduct an unreasonable search when he entered a residence without a warrant based solely on an anonymous tip?”1Legal Information Institute. Fourth Amendment
By the time the reader reaches the facts, they already know the yardstick those facts will be measured against.
The “Deep Issue” Format
Legal writing scholar Bryan Garner developed this multi-sentence alternative for situations where cramming everything into one question creates more confusion than clarity. A deep issue breaks the analysis across separate sentences, stays under 75 words, and ends with a question. A nonlawyer should be able to read it and understand the problem.
Example: “Federal pleading standards require only a short and plain statement of the claim. The plaintiff’s complaint alleges breach of contract but does not identify which contract provision was breached or when the alleged breach occurred. Should the court dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim?”
The multi-sentence structure sidesteps the tense-shifting and subordinate-clause pileups that plague long single-sentence formats. It reads more like a story than a statute, which can land better with a judge working through a stack of briefs.
Examples by Practice Area
Contract Dispute
“Whether a party breached a supply agreement governed by UCC Article 2 by delivering nonconforming goods 30 days after the contractual deadline when the buyer had already notified the seller that timely delivery was a material term.”
This version identifies the controlling law (UCC Article 2), the legal question (breach), and three facts that matter: nonconforming goods, late delivery, and prior notice that the deadline was material. Change any one of them and the analysis shifts.
Criminal Law — Search and Seizure
“Under the Fourth Amendment, did officers conduct an unreasonable search when they entered a private residence without a warrant, without consent, and without exigent circumstances, relying solely on an anonymous tip that did not establish probable cause?”
The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits warrantless searches of private premises unless a recognized exception applies, such as consent, exigent circumstances, or a search connected to a lawful arrest.1Legal Information Institute. Fourth Amendment The statement works because it eliminates each common exception in the facts themselves, narrowing the question to whether the tip alone could justify the entry.
Premises Liability
“Whether a commercial property owner is liable for negligence under premises liability principles when the owner had actual knowledge of a broken stairwell railing for 21 days and failed to repair it or warn visitors before a tenant fell and suffered a spinal injury.”
The 21-day window and the actual knowledge are both doing work. Shorten the delay and the owner can argue there was no reasonable chance to fix it. Drop actual knowledge and the analysis moves to whether the owner should have known, which is a different legal test.
Administrative Law
“Whether a federal agency’s policy guidance document constitutes a binding legislative rule subject to the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act when the agency treats noncompliance with the guidance as grounds for enforcement action.”
Administrative law issue statements often turn on the line between what an agency can do informally and what requires formal rulemaking. The decisive fact here is the enforcement treatment, which is what turns an advisory document into something that functions like a binding rule.
Motion to Dismiss
A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim tests whether the complaint, taken at face value, describes a viable legal theory. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) lets a defendant raise this challenge by motion rather than filing a full answer.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 – Defenses and Objections – Section: (b) How to Present Defenses
Example: “Whether the plaintiff’s complaint should be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) when it alleges breach of a noncompete agreement but fails to plead the existence of adequate consideration, a required element under the governing state’s contract law.”
The complaint’s pleading obligations themselves come from Rule 8(a), which requires a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 8 – General Rules of Pleading The statement ties the specific omission (no allegation of consideration) to the specific pleading standard the court will apply.
Objective and Persuasive Versions of the Same Issue
The same dispute calls for a different statement depending on who reads it. An internal office memorandum calls for an objective framing, because the supervising attorney needs an honest prediction. A court brief calls for a persuasive framing, because each element should quietly suggest the answer that favors your client.
Take a Fourth Amendment suppression question. An objective version for a memo might read:
“Under the Fourth Amendment, is evidence admissible when officers entered a private residence without a warrant after receiving an anonymous tip?”
A persuasive version for a defense brief might read:
“Whether a homeowner’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when police forced entry into her home at midnight based solely on an unverified anonymous phone call.”
Both contain the same three elements. The persuasive version emphasizes the sympathetic facts (homeowner, midnight, forced entry, unverified tip) and uses language that leans toward suppression. The objective one does neither.
Misjudging the audience is a credibility problem. An objective memo that reads like advocacy signals a writer who cannot separate analysis from argument. A brief that reads like a neutral memo wastes the chance to frame the question before the judge ever reaches the argument section.
Common Mistakes Visible in Weak Examples
The same handful of errors keep appearing in draft issue statements. Watching for them is faster than rewriting the whole thing later.
- Assuming the answer. “Whether the defendant is liable for the injuries he negligently caused” smuggles in the conclusion. The facts should lead the reader toward your answer without stating it outright.
- Substituting legal conclusions for facts. “The officer searched the defendant’s home” is a conclusion. “The officer looked through the defendant’s bedroom window from the fire escape” describes what happened and lets the reader decide whether it qualifies as a search.
- Omitting unfavorable facts. In a persuasive brief it is tempting to leave out damaging facts, but the court will see them in the record. Acknowledge the bad fact and frame it in the least harmful light.
- Writing too broadly. “Whether the defendant violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights” could describe a thousand cases. An issue statement needs enough factual detail that a reader can identify this dispute.
- Tense inconsistency. Single-sentence formats shift between present tense for the legal standard and past tense for the facts. Some of this is unavoidable, but careless switching confuses the reader. The deep issue format avoids the problem by giving each element its own sentence.
Court Rules That Constrain These Examples
Several federal rules impose specific requirements on how issue statements appear in court filings. These are enforceable mandates, not drafting advice.
Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(5) requires every appellant’s brief to include a statement of the issues presented for review.4Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 28 – Briefs The appellee need not include a separate statement unless they disagree with how the appellant framed the issues. Issues not raised in the statement are generally treated as forfeited; appellate courts repeatedly refuse to consider arguments a party failed to include. The statement of issues functions as a gate.
At the Supreme Court, Rule 14 requires petitions for certiorari to present the questions for review “concisely in relation to the circumstances of the case, without unnecessary detail.” The questions must be short, non-argumentative, and non-repetitive, and they must appear on the first page after the cover, with nothing else on that page. The rule warns that failure to present questions “with accuracy, brevity, and clarity” is sufficient reason to deny the petition, and only questions set out in the petition, or fairly included within them, will be considered.5Legal Information Institute. Supreme Court Rule 14 – Content of a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari A poorly drafted question presented can end the case before the Court ever reaches the merits.
Local court rules can modify these requirements, and some courts impose additional ones for pretrial filings, such as separate statements of undisputed material facts on summary judgment motions. Check the specific court’s rules before you file.