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Quick guide to better legal writing

CA quick guide to better legal writing By Richard Heinrich Chief Content O ?cer Richard is One Legal ? s Chief Content O ?cer responsible for editing One Legal ? s publications Before One Legal he spent several years supporting law ?rms in the UK as an employee of the Law Society of England and Wales the British equivalent of the ABA When he ? s not reading and writing about the legal profession he ? ll often be found in his kitchen cooking English favorites or awake at strange hours watching football and rugby matches in European timezones Remember we ? re here to help If you ? re looking for support with a One Legal ?ling please email support onelegal com or call - - - Follow us for more legal support resources CContents Why should lawyers bother to write in plain English legal writing tips from leading legal authorities legal writing mistakes to avoid How to self-edit as a paralegal Why typography should matter to lawyers How to use Microsoft Word Styles The best books blogs and resources for legal writing ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? CWhy should lawyers bother to write in plain English As the myth goes the legal profession ? s tendency toward verbosity originated from a period in English history when legal drafters were paid by the word In contrast to the earlier practice of payment by folio large sheets of paper which led to writers using needlessly large handwriting to maximize their income in the s the English Parliament considered payment by word to be more reasonable That ? s presumably how it became standard practice Sensing an opportunity Tudor lawyers wrote in increasingly obtuse language Hence several words in place of one e g using ??in the event of ? whereas ??if would be more succinct and the proliferation of writing in entirely redundant triplicates ??give devise and bequeath ? and so on True or not doubtless the legal profession has long had a reputation for wordiness It has for almost as long also had a campaign for plain English For example Thomas Je ?erson wrote in ??we lawyers say everything two or three times so that nobody but we of the craft can untwist the diction and ?nd out what it means ? ? Arguably in today ? s high-tech world where legal documents are increasingly likely to be read onscreen rather than on the printed page brevity and clarity have never been more important What though are the actual advantages of writing in plain English In other words why bother Is it necessary to write in ??legalese ? ??Hang on ? you may be thinking ??aren ? t most legal terms of art shorthand that make it easier for lawyers to communicate with each other ? The answer is only sometimes Writing in the Michigan Bar Journal legal publisher Mark Mathewson explains ??Legalese may indeed be a necessary evil depending on what you mean by ? necessary