Course · Interpersonal Skills
Fact Investigation and Case Theory
Find out what happened and show it: facts against inferences, sources of evidence and how to keep them, interviews and witness statements, chronologies, weighing accounts fairly, the limits of investigation, and a case theory tested against the other side’s best story.
Pay once, keep it forever · secure payment by Stripe
Most disputes are decided on what happened, not on what the law is. This course teaches the skill that wins them: finding the facts, testing them and organising them into a case. It starts with what a fact is and how it differs from an inference, an assumption, an opinion and a report, then covers where evidence comes from and how to keep it safe, how to interview a client or a witness without shaping the answer, how to build a chronology and a cast of characters, and how to weigh accounts fairly, with the cautions that memory research and our own biases demand. It sets out the limits that the law and the profession place on investigators, including contact with represented people, unlawful methods, privilege and the safe use of AI tools. It ends with the case theory: the story the facts support and the legal elements it must satisfy, an evidence map that shows the gaps, and a test against the other side’s best story. In the capstone you take a flooded storage unit, two accounts that cannot both be right and a box of scattered documents, and work them end to end.
The Curriculum
Why facts win cases: what a fact is, facts against inferences, assumptions and opinions, and the investigation cycle→
Why most cases turn on facts, what a fact is and is not, the difference between a fact, an inference, an assumption, an opinion and a report, burden and standard in outline, and the investigation cycle. Practice: Sort the Statements, What Would You Do, Back to the Fact and the Fact-or-Inference Sorter tool.
Sources of evidence and preserving them: documents, objects, digital records, witnesses and experts, reliability, chain of custody and holds→
The main sources of evidence and their strengths and risks, how reliable each tends to be, originals and copies, chain of custody, metadata, preservation letters and holds, and how evidence is obtained from others. Practice: Name the Source, Choose the Safe Step, Preservation Plan and Spot the Risk.
Interviews and witness statements: preparing, asking, listening, recording and writing a statement in the witness’s own words→
Preparing an interview, open and closed questions, the funnel, leading and compound questions, probing how a witness knows, recording, and writing a statement in the witness’s own words. Practice: Name the Question, Better Question, Check the Statement and the Fact-or-Inference Sorter.
Chronologies and casts of characters: building the timeline, dating events, finding gaps and conflicts, and keeping track of the people→
What a chronology is for, what an entry contains, date formats and the day-month trap, sourcing, anchors, gaps and conflicts, and the cast of characters. Practice: Build the Entry, Which Date, Spot the Conflict and the Chronology Checker tool.
Credibility, gaps and bias: how memory works, why accounts differ, weighing sources fairly and guarding against your own bias→
How memory works, why honest accounts differ, contradictions and gaps, factors for weighing an account, why demeanour misleads and how to guard against your own bias. Practice: What Does It Suggest, Weigh the Accounts, Spot the Bias and Fair Assessment.
Ethics, limits and AI tools: what a lawyer may and may not do to find the facts, who may be contacted, privacy, privilege and using AI safely→
A lawyer’s duties in fact work, who may be contacted and how, privacy and unlawful methods, documents received by mistake, privilege in outline and using AI tools safely. Practice: Where Is the Line, Handle It Properly, Spot the Breach and Plan the AI Use.
Case theory and the evidence map: elements, a story the facts support, testing it against the other side’s best story and deciding what to do next and when to stop→
What a case theory is, elements of a claim, the evidence map, gaps, contested points and single sources, testing against the other side’s best story, next steps and when to stop. Practice: Which Element, Test the Theory, Write the Theory and the Element Evidence Map tool.
Capstone: Capstone: the flooded storage unit, from scattered documents and clashing accounts to a chronology, an evidence map and a case theory→
A cycle shop, a storage unit, a blocked drain and two accounts that cannot both be right. Test the accounts, build and check the chronology, rank the sources, map the evidence, choose next steps and write the case theory.
What It Covers
“You will not learn to make the facts say what your client hopes. You will learn to find what the facts do say, to know how well you can prove it, and to tell your client the truth about it.”
- A module-by-module path from the first account to the report to the client, with a capstone on one invented dispute with scattered documents and clashing accounts.
- Three working tools: a Fact-or-Inference Sorter that marks the judgements, inferences, assumptions and reports in an account, a Chronology Checker that finds gaps, conflicts, ambiguous dates and unsourced entries, and an Element Evidence Map that shows which elements have no fact, are contested or rest on a single source.
- Jurisdiction-neutral: every person, business, document and event in the examples is invented, and the course says plainly where rules on disclosure, privilege and contact with witnesses differ between systems.
- Honest about its limits: it teaches how to test accounts and weigh sources, and it says why demeanour and confidence are poor guides, why the investigator’s own bias is the main risk and what the lawyer must never do.
Included With All-Access · Or Buy It Alone
Introductory PriceChoose how you unlock Fact Investigation and Case Theory
Subscribe for every course and most tools, or buy just this one course on its own.
The one-time prices below are early, introductory rates for a brand-new catalog — expected to rise as we add more content. Buy now and it’s yours at today’s rate, forever.
Buying a course needs no account: you pay, and we email you a one-click sign-in. Subscriptions need a free account.
Look first, then buy. Free previews on every product page. Secure payment by Stripe. Pay once, keep it forever. Details
Or give this as a giftOther Scrolls in This Chamber
Across the Table$15 →Interests, walk-away numbers, offers, trades, pressure tactics and professional limits, with practice rooms and calculators.
Cooling the Room$15 →How conflict escalates, mapping a dispute, de-escalation, hard conversations, choosing a process, mediation, power, culture and ethics, with practice mediations.
The Client Conversation$15 →Trust, the first meeting, fees and scope, updates in plain words, advice and decisions, bad news, boundaries and ethics, with practice meetings.Part of a program
Step 13 of 13 in the Foundations of Law, Year 1
How lawyers think, find the law and write, and the first great subjects: contract, tort, crime and the constitution. Each course is sold on its own; the whole program is $69 once and unlocks every course in it.
See the whole programModule 1 is free to try. Sign in, pass each module quiz and the course average, and your Certificate of Completion is emailed to you automatically. This course teaches method and technique with invented people and figures; it is general education, not legal advice, and professional rules differ from country to country.
Common questions
- Is this only for litigators?
- No. The same skills are used by in-house lawyers checking what happened before an investigation or a dispute, by transactional lawyers testing facts in due diligence, by regulators and by anyone who has to decide what to believe. The examples come from a dispute because that is where the habits are tested hardest.
- Does it teach me the law of evidence?
- No. It teaches how to find and handle facts and sources. Rules on what a court will admit, on disclosure and on privilege differ between countries, so the course describes the patterns and leaves the local rules to you and your teachers.
- Does it help me become a private investigator?
- No. It is written for law students and lawyers who instruct investigators and handle the results. It explains the limits, including that unlawful methods taint the case and the lawyer.
- Does it cover interviewing vulnerable witnesses?
- It explains that special rules and techniques apply and that you should not improvise. It does not train you to conduct such interviews; that needs specialist training.
- Does it cover AI tools?
- Yes. Module 6 explains how to use them for first drafts of chronologies and summaries, why every fact must be checked against its source, why confidential material must not be pasted without permission and why a tool must never be asked to create evidence.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. It is general education using invented people and events. Professional duties, rules of evidence and privilege depend on where you practise, and the ones that apply to you are those of your own system and regulator.
- How do I get the Certificate of Completion?
- Sign in, pass each module quiz and keep a course average of at least 75. The certificate is then issued and emailed to you automatically.
Teaching? Share this with your class
Free to use in class. The free parts open for everyone, no account needed.