What are your "wrong words"?
I'd love to post another piece about wrong words.
What are the words you see misused in legal writing? Let me know by posting a comment or emailing me, and I'll include them in a new post.
wayne@legalwriting.net
What are the words you see misused in legal writing? Let me know by posting a comment or emailing me, and I'll include them in a new post.
wayne@legalwriting.net
In the trial/trail vein, marital/martial is another pair that the spell checker will not catch. While incorrect, many marriages end with what seems like a "Martial Dissolution Agreement."
Wayne says:
Hilarious. Good one. Thanks.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of people misuse may/might.
"May" refers to that which is permissive, as in "is allowed to." E.g., "Defendant may [is allowed to] file a response."
"Might" refers to that which is possible or probable, as in "is able to" or "is likely to." E.g., "Defendant might [is likely to] file a response."
I feel like I see a lot of legal writing where "may" is used improperly -- where the author ought to use "might." E.g., "Defendant may wish to file a response."
And yes, I used "e.g." here on purpose, because you said you preferred not to use it.
Wayne says:
may / might problems are complicated. I agree with the commenter here, but it's a tricky area.
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The ones I see most often are statue/statute, principle/principal, and pubic/public.
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"Comprise" is definitely a big one. It appears few people use it correctly.
Wayne says:
Yes. Misused quite often. I know how to use it correctly (he said with all due humility), but I wonder how harshly I should judge those who don't. It's tricky.
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I have to look up compose / comprise every time. I have Garner's style manual sitting on my desk, partly for that purpose. I hope to stop using either of them eventually.
Chris
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This isn't a wrong word, but one common mistake I see (I am a research attorney) is the formation of a plural by adding an apostrophe and an s. For example, "brief's" is used when "briefs" is intended.
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Because versus since. Because should always be restrictive; since when used causally nonrestrictive. Since used temporally is restrictive. Further discussion above.
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