Good legal writing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T41LZlnaca8

1. Remove adverbs:

e.g. 1: The contract was unquestionably breached.

e.g. 2: There was an exceedingly long delay.

e.g. 3: The defendant’s actions were clearly wrong.

These words are superfluous. Also, they weaken your argument because it looks like your compensating
for something.

2. Remove angry/loaded language

e.g. 1: outrageous, atrocious, unforgivable, blatant, misleading, frivolous, sanctionable

3. Remove (legal) jargon

e.g. here forthwith, whereas, therefore to, wherein, ipso facto, a priori, nunc pro tunc.

These words are pretentious, no one’s impressed you know them, don’t use them.

4. Remove pronouns

e.g. he, she, it, they, this, that.

Often the referent is unclear. Rewrite to make clear.

5. Tighten up loose language

e.g. a: Superfluous descriptive words: “He drove the very long trip from NY to LA”.

e.g. b: Use 1 word instead of many: Change “He took the deposition” to “He deposed”.

e.g. c: Prepositional phrases: Change “The employment manual of the company” to “The company’s
employment manual.”

e.g. d: Use active voice, not passive: Change “The witness was questioned by the police” to “The police
questioned the witness”.

e.g. e: Cut out transitional words: “However, therefore, such as”.

6. Lawyerly sayings

e.g. a: “distinction without a difference”, “constellation of factors”, “there is no basis to believe”, “it
goes without saying”. Don’t say these things. They are gross.

7. Use the entire line

Make sure the last line of a paragraph doesn’t spill over slightly to the next line. It looks sloppy, lazy,
unprofessional, it looks like the attorney did nothing to revise or redraft the paragraph. Rather, make
sure the last line of the paragraph is almost flush with the RHS margin. This shows you’ve reviewed and
edited the paper, and it looks well written

Fig. 1: Bad
Fig. 2: good – last line of paragraph barely fits on the line.