Time-Saving Strategies for Legal Reading: A Guide for Law Students

If you’re a law student drowning in case law, legislation and journal articles, well, welcome to the club. Legal reading is not only time-consuming; it’s brutal. Between balancing lectures and assignments, and perhaps even a part-time job, finding the hours to read every single page of every single case? Yeah, not happening. But here’s the silver lining: You don’t need to.

Smart law students don’t just read — they read strategically. The trick isn’t reading more but reading in a way that makes what you read count. That means knowing what’s important, avoiding the noise, and using the tools you have around you to find the main ideas quickly.

And we know what you’re thinking — isn’t skimming cheating? Absolutely not! It’s called efficiency, and it’s precisely what lawyers in the real world do on a daily basis. Here are some real time-saving strategies to help you survive law school without sacrificing your sanity.

Use AI to Summarise Legal Texts

Let’s face it — some legal texts could put an insomniac to sleep. Case judgments can run hundreds of pages long, filled with legal jargon and unnecessary padding. Reading every single word? Not practical.

That’s when AI comes in to save your study session. Instead of slogging through endless PDFs, you can summarize PDFs using AI to extract the key arguments, decisions, and legal principles in seconds.

AI tools can distill long judgments into concise summaries, bringing out the most important aspects without sacrificing accuracy. This means you can quickly understand the ratio decidendi (the reasoning behind the decision) without wading through pages of background details.

Of course, AI isn’t perfect, so always cross-check with the full text if it’s a major case. But for initial reading and note taking? It’s a game-changer!

Master the Art of Case Briefing

A good law student doesn’t just read cases—they brief them. A case brief is really just your own cheat sheet: an organised outline that distills the major components of any given case into a few bullet points. The key? Stick to the essentials:

• Case name and year
• Legal issue(s) — what question did the court have to answer?
• Relevant law — which statutes or precedents were in play?
• Decision —who won and why?
• Ratio decidendi — the court’s reasoning that will impact future cases

In fact, writing your own case briefs compels you to engage with the material actively which is invaluable when it comes to retention.

And the best part is, when it’s crunch time for exam revision, having a collection of sharp, structured briefs will save you hours of re-reading.

Prioritise Primary Sources Over Secondary Ones

Law textbooks and journal articles can be useful for background knowledge, but they often tend to make things unnecessarily complicated.

Our best strategy for excelling in law school? Skip the filter of someone else’s interpretation and go straight to the source. Read the legislation, skim the key cases and build your understanding from there.

Why? Because cases and statutes — primary sources — are all that really matter in legal arguments. Professors and examiners value your ability to apply real law more than how many secondary sources you can cite.

If and when you need clarification, dip into a textbook or journal article for context. But don’t start there. It’s like reading a review of a film instead of watching it yourself.

Develop a Laser-Focused Skimming Technique

Not all reading is created equal, and not all parts of a case or statute deserve your full attention. The challenge is knowing where to focus and how to skim. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• For cases: Read the summary (if available), then focus on the headnotes, judgment breakdown, and key legal principles. The lengthy arguments and procedural history? Often unnecessary.
• For statutes: Read the definitions and key sections, then check out any interpretation clauses. For larger bits of legislation, refer to explanatory notes for additional clarity.
• For journal articles: Skip the abstract (you can usually guess what it’s about from the title) and head to the conclusion. If it’s relevant, then scan the main sections for useful details.

Skimming is not about being lazy. It is about being strategic. If you can’t read it all, it’s usually better to understand 80% of the important stuff rather than 100% of the irrelevant.

Use Visual Tools to Speed Up Understanding

• Legal reading doesn’t have to be all about staring down hundreds of pages of text. If you learn better visually, organise complex information into mind maps, flowcharts, or tables.
• Mind maps are excellent for linking related legal ideas — for example, tracing how different cases interpret a statute. Flowcharts help with procedural law.
• Lastly, tables are great for understanding case law, statutes, or legal principles. Not only do visual tools make things easier to digest, but they also double as excellent revision aids when exams roll around.

Create a “Kill List” of Essential Cases

Let’s be real — nobody remembers all the cases they’ve read. Instead of getting swept up in the tide of cases and details, build a list of must-know cases for each topic, aka your “kill list”.

For each case, include:

• The legal principle it established
• A one-liner on the facts (to jog your memory)
• The court’s decision
• Any dissenting opinions that might be useful for argumentation

A condensed list of important cases means you have the relevant precedents at the front of your mind when you answer problem questions or construct a legal argument. Bonus: it makes last-minute cramming way more efficient.

Read with a Purpose (and a Timer!)

Finally, want to know what is one of the biggest time-wasters in legal reading? It’s reading without a clear goal. Before you even open a case, ask yourself: What am I searching for? Are you looking to learn more about a specific legal principle? Are you preparing for a tutorial discussion? Or maybe you’re searching for arguments to support an essay?

Once you know your goal, set a time limit. Don’t read aimlessly if the case is 50 pages long. Allow yourself 15 minutes to identify the main points.

If you’re reading a chapter from a textbook, set a 30-minute deadline. Working against the clock forces you to stay focused and avoid unnecessary deep dives.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Law school is intense, but drowning in reading isn’t a badge of honour. It’s just inefficient. Remember: the best law students aren’t those who read everything — they’re the ones who read strategically.

With some of these tips in your back pocket, you can slash hours of reading while actually improving your understanding. So, forget about burning the midnight oil. All you have to do is streamline your approach, and start studying smarter.

The legal world is all about working efficiently — why not start practising that now.