How to Answer a Problem Question

A problem question consists of a set of facts and requires the student to advise on the legal consequences of those facts. Law schools use problem questions to train and assess law students.

Problem questions help students to study law in several ways. (i) Students revise the relevant legal rules. (ii) Students go beyond a mere passive study of law into the active task of applying law to a set of facts. They then see how law operates which helps them better to understand and remember law. (iii) Problem questions enable student to acquire and to improve some of the basic skills for working with law in practice. These include some of the major skills used in litigation.

 There is a common technique proposed for answering problem questions that is sometimes labelled the IRAC method. (However, it has a number of isotopes that vary the acronym although they are easy to recognise and give much the same account of the skill.) In the author’s view the IRAC method of answering problem questions and its cohorts are underdeveloped. This brings some negative consequences. First, the IRAC method is an inadequate guide to the skill of answering a problem question. Second, and this consequence flows from the first, it is just not possible for a student to answer a problem question properly using the IRAC method. Third, the IRAC method denies students the opportunity to develop important skills needed for the practice of law, for which problem questions provide useful practice. This is particularly case for some of the basic skills that are needed to conduct litigation, which the IRAC method omits.

 In writing this article the author has deliberately sought to avoid these problems. By this means he seeks to provide students with an effective and efficient method for answering problem questions that enables students to practise all of the skills that a problem question requires.