1212:(NY: Plume/Penguin 1991), Chapter 13, pp. 171-176, especially its notorious riff on how a lawyer might edit -- and torture -- the phrase "The sky is blue" (pp. 172-174). Similarly, see Professor Fred Rodell's "Goodbye to Law Reviews," whose opening lines contain the classic statement of the problem: "There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content." (This and other articles are collected in
397:
importance of some legal documents and the seriousness of the circumstances in which some legal documents are used. Yet not all formality in legal writing is justified. To the extent that formality produces transparency and precision, it is desirable. To the extent that formality hinders reader comprehension, it is less desirable. In particular, when legal content must be conveyed to nonlawyers, formality should give way to clear communication.
495:, legal opinions and other documents without attribution. Lawyers use forms documents when drafting documents such as contracts, wills, and judgments. The key difference between using phrases or paragraphs from other legal documents, and copying in other contexts or copying the entire document, arises from the fact that lawyers are effectively drawing upon a common pool of clauses that they adjust and modify for their own purposes.
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A commercial lease for a small company using a small office space will likely be much shorter and will require less complexity, but may still be somewhat formal. But a proxy statement allowing the members of a neighborhood association to designate their voting preferences for the next board meeting ought to be as plain as can be. If informality aids that goal, it is justified.
595:, as a term, has been adopted in other languages. Legalese is characterized by long sentences, many modifying clauses, complex vocabulary, high abstraction, and insensitivity to the layman's need to understand the document's gist. Legalese arises most commonly in legal drafting, yet appears in both types of legal analysis.
408:
Many U.S. law schools teach legal writing in a way that acknowledges the technical complexity inherent in law and the justified formality that complexity often requires, but with an emphasis on clarity, simplicity, and directness. Yet many practicing lawyers, busy as they are with deadlines and heavy
602:
Public comprehensibility: Legalese suffers from being less comprehensible to the general public than plain
English, which can be important in both private (e.g., contracts) and public matters (e.g., laws, especially in democracies where the populace is seen as both responsible for and subject to the
451:
The persuasive document, a motion or a brief, attempts to persuade a deciding authority to favorably decide the dispute for the author's client. Motions and briefs are usually submitted to judges, but also to mediators, arbitrators, and others. In addition a persuasive letter may attempt to persuade
442:
The legal memorandum is the most common type of predictive legal analysis; it may include the client letter or legal opinion. The legal memorandum predicts the outcome of a legal question by analyzing the authorities governing the question and the relevant facts that gave rise to the legal question.
412:
Recently a variety of tools have been produced to allow writers to automate core parts of legal writing. For example, automated tools may be used by transactional lawyers to check certain formalities while writing, and tools exist to help litigators verify citations and quotations to legal authority
404:
Transaction documents—legal drafting—fall on a similar continuum. A 150-page merger agreement between two large corporations, in which both sides are represented by counsel, will be highly formal—and should also be accurate, precise, and airtight (features not always compatible with high formality).
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is the most rhetorically stylized. So although a brief states the legal issues, describes authorities, and applies authorities to the question—as does a memorandum—the brief's application portion is framed as an argument. The author argues for one approach to resolving the legal matter and does not
400:
What is crucial in setting the level of formality in any legal document is assessing the needs and expectations of the audience. For example, an appellate brief to the highest court in a jurisdiction calls for a formal style—this shows proper respect for the court and for the legal matter at issue.
467:
Legal drafting creates binding legal text. It includes enacted law like statutes, rule and regulations; contracts (private and public); personal legal documents like wills and trusts; and public legal documents like notices and instructions. Legal drafting requires no legal authority citation and
443:
It explains and applies the authorities in predicting an outcome, and ends with advice and recommendations. The legal memorandum also serves as record of the research done for a given legal question. Traditionally, and to meet the legal reader's expectations, it is formally organized and written.
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These features tend to make legal writing formal. This formality can take the form of long sentences, complex constructions, archaic and hyper-formal vocabulary, and a focus on content to the exclusion of reader needs. Some of this formality in legal writing is necessary and desirable, given the
480:
rules applicable to most other writers, with additional ethical implications for presenting copied materials as original. Legal memoranda and briefs must properly attribute quotations and source authorities; yet, within a law office, a lawyer might borrow from other lawyers' texts without
401:
An interoffice legal memorandum to a supervisor can probably be less formal—though not colloquial—because it is an in-house decision-making tool, not a court document. And an email message to a friend and client, updating the status of a legal matter, is appropriately informal.
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Coverage of contingencies: Legal writing faces a trade off in attempting to cover all possible contingencies while remaining reasonably brief. Legalese is characterized by a shift in priority towards the former of these concerns. For example, legalese commonly uses
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Plain-English advocates suggest that no document can possibly cover every contingency, and that lawyers should not attempt to encompass every contingency they can foresee. Rather, lawyers should only draft for the known, possible, reasonably expected contingencies.
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workloads, often resort to a template-based, outdated, hyperformal writing style in both analytical and transactional documents. This is understandable, but it sometimes unfortunately perpetuates an unnecessarily formal legal writing style.
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students must learn legal writing; the courses focus on: (1) predictive analysis, i.e., an outcome-predicting memorandum (positive or negative) of a given action for the attorney's client; and (2) persuasive analysis, e.g., motions and
154:. One form of legal writing involves drafting a balanced analysis of a legal problem or issue. Another form of legal writing is persuasive, and advocates in favor of a legal position. Another form legal writing involves drafting
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of authority. This is accomplished by a unique and complicated citation system, unlike that used in any other genre of writing. The standard methods for
American legal citation are defined by two competing rule books: the
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in legal writing involves an effort to avoid complex language and terminology in legal documents, to make legal writing more understandable and accessible. One of the goals of the movement is to reduce reliance on
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Its long history of use provides a similarly extensive background of precedent tied to the language. This precedent, as discussed above, will be a strong determinant of how documents written in legalese will be
282:
Archaic vocabulary: legal writing employs many old words and phrases that were formerly quotidian language, but today exist mostly or only in law, dating from the 16th century; English examples are
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to dismiss a lawsuit may use the same or a very similar form of motion again in another case, and so on. Many lawyers use and re-use written documents in this way and call these re-usable documents
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625:(e.g., "null and void" and "dispute, controversy, or claim") which may appear redundant or unnecessary to laymen, but to a lawyer might reflect an important reference to distinct legal concepts.
434:. Although not as widely taught in law schools, legal drafting courses exist; other types of legal writing concentrate upon writing appeals or on interdisciplinary aspects of persuasion.
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The drafting of legal documents such as contracts is different as, unlike in most other legal writing categories, it is common to use language and clauses that are derived from
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Legal writing is of two, broad categories: (i) legal analysis and (ii) legal drafting. Legal analysis is two-fold: (1) predictive analysis, and (2) persuasive analysis. In the
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and who has prepared a similar contract before will often re-use, with limited changes, the old contract for the new occasion. Or a lawyer who has filed a successful
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The legalese language itself may be more precise when compared to plain
English, having arisen from a need for such precision, among other things.
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is an
English term first used in 1914 for legal writing that is very difficult for laymen to read and understand, the implication being that this
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Resistance to ambiguity: Legalese may be particularly resistant to misinterpretation, be it incidental or deliberate, for two reasons:
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Legal writing places heavy reliance on authority. In most legal writing, the writer must back up assertions and statements with
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512:, words that have a specific meaning within the context of the law, but that may carry a different meaning in other contexts.
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1138:, written by Amy Krois-Lindner and TransLegal, is a coursebook for Cambridge ESOL’s International Legal English Certificate.
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Some important points in the debate of "legalese" v. "plain language" as the continued standard for legal writing include:
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1145:(Oxford University Press) is regarded as an authoritative guide to legal language, and is aimed at the practising lawyer.
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In writing an objective analysis or a persuasive document, including a memorandum or brief, lawyers write under the same
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written by Maria
Fraddosio (Naples, Edizioni Giuridiche Simone, 2008) is a course book for Italian University Students.
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387:) and are not italicized as English legal language, as would be foreign words in mainstream English writing.
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865:"The Dark Side of Unattributed Copying and the Ethical Implications of Plagiarism in the Legal Profession"
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Legal writing values precedent, as distinct from authority. For example, a lawyer who must prepare a
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articles, seminar papers, and similar writings intended to reflect the author's original thoughts.
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attribution, in using a well-phrased, successful argument made in a previous brief.
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Exercises for Legal
Writers I: Active and Passive Sentences and Writing with Verbs
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is deliberate for excluding the legally untrained and to justify high fees.
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793:"Legal Writing | Free Self Help Legal Information for Missouri Residents"
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Hereof, Thereof, and
Everywhereof: A Contrarian Guide to Legal Drafting
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and presentation of arguments in documents such as legal memoranda and
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554:. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.
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1216:, edited by Daniel R. White (NY: Plume/Penguin 1991), p. 241.)
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For a humorous perspective on legal writing, see Daniel R. White's
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Plagiarism is strictly prohibited in academic work, especially in
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Trials and
Tribulations—An Anthology of Appealing Legal Humor
1190:, created by Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers.
1109:(2 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: American Bar Association.
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Ordinary words having different meanings in law, e.g.,
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Legal
Language, Legal Writing & General English
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is a reference book aimed at the practising lawyer.
238:Specialized words and phrases unique to law, e.g.,
60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
814:"Citations and References: Let the computer do it"
681:"Legal Research and Writing | Harvard Law School"
728:"Legal Citation Guides/Authorities (U.S. Based)"
957:. Plain Language Action and Information Network
468:generally is written without a stylized voice.
8:
978:"What is plain language law and why use it?"
758:"Citation Guides from Foreign Jurisdictions"
1195:The Oxford Handbook of Legal Correspondence
1220:Exercises for Legal Writers II: Wordiness
1202:and published by Oxford University Press.
570:Learn how and when to remove this message
120:Learn how and when to remove this message
820:. Southern Connecticut State University
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863:Strickland, Cooper J. (1 March 2012).
234:that can be categorized in four ways:
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1188:The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing
923:"Copyright and the Contract Drafter"
921:Adams, Kenneth A. (23 August 2006).
894:Dunnewold, Mary (1 September 2011).
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58:adding citations to reliable sources
189:: A Professional System of Citation
896:"Plagiarism: Proceed with Caution"
27:Pleading in civil and criminal law
25:
1182:New ELS: English for Law Students
976:Butt, Peter (12 September 2002).
844:LII / Legal Information Institute
708:LII / Legal Information Institute
1148:Peter Butt and Richard Castle’s
1143:Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage
764:. 24 August 2017. Archived from
734:. 24 August 2017. Archived from
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951:"Bryan Garner on Plain English"
230:Legal writing extensively uses
45:needs additional citations for
1210:The Official Lawyer's Handbook
1007:Online Etymological Dictionary
623:doublets and triplets of words
452:the dispute's opposing party.
197:: A Uniform System of Citation
1:
1105:Darmstadter, Howard (2008).
1080:Lundin, Leigh (2009-12-31).
459:present a neutral analysis.
136:Books on legal writing at a
1164:and published by Routledge.
1135:International Legal English
550:the claims made and adding
279:(a principal in a lawsuit).
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982:Law and Justice Foundation
902:. American Bar Association
762:Harvard Law School Library
732:Harvard Law School Library
1082:"Buzzwords—Bang * Splat!"
869:North Carolina Law Review
447:Persuasive legal analysis
438:Predictive legal analysis
273:(to sign to effect), and
269:(support for a promise),
146:involves the analysis of
702:LII Staff (2007-08-06).
413:for motions and briefs.
818:Hilton C. Buley Library
660:Legal Writing Institute
505:Plain Language Movement
499:Plain language movement
170:Distinguishing features
1035:. Babylon Software Ltd
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1265:Writing-related lists
1150:Modern Legal Drafting
679:School, Harvard Law.
232:technical terminology
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930:New York Law Journal
900:ABA For Law Students
187:ALWD Citation Manual
54:improve this article
1255:Legal communication
219:or, less commonly,
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535:possibly contains
456:Persuasive writing
312:pronominal adverbs
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1065:25 February
1053:See, e.g.,
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1013:25 February
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824:25 February
772:25 February
742:25 February
560:August 2013
427:law schools
366:prima facie
263:(lawsuit),
138:law library
1234:Categories
1198:(2006) by
1160:(2004) by
1091:2010-02-19
1029:"Legalese"
1003:"legalese"
849:2024-07-23
799:2024-06-21
713:2018-10-31
666:References
544:improve it
493:form books
486:law review
478:plagiarism
472:Plagiarism
425:, in most
417:Categories
384:sub judice
372:inter alia
354:certiorari
296:heretofore
247:fee simple
226:Vocabulary
158:, such as
80:newspapers
640:Academese
548:verifying
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