BLOG.LEGALWRITING.NET: Recent Comments

Comment on Start Strong--Motions

2010-03-19T18:19:20Z

Starting with a strong summary is important for the advocates as well as the court. Sometimes the advocate seems unsure about what is wanted. I can't tell you how often I see the meat of the dispute buried under ruble late in the briefs--almost like neither side wanted to help the court figure out what was really at issue..

Comment on What I wish I had known about legal writing--part 2

2010-03-18T09:26:16Z

Amen. It just makes me feel inadequate some days to think that it took me *years* to learn the things I've learned. Years. And I'm still learning, and I'm 56.

Wayne says:
You're normal.

Comment on Ending sentences and clauses with prepositions

2010-03-16T17:05:31Z

Rephrasing avoids the issue and strengthens the voice. "Considered" works around "thought of," and instead of a thing I will not "put up with," it is something I cannot "tolerate."

Wayne says:
Rephrasing avoids the issue, if you think ending with a preposition is an issue. It strengthens the voice if you think ending with a preposition is weak.

Comment on What I wish I had known about legal writing--part 1

2010-03-15T20:28:33Z

I just wrote about this topic the other day. Clarence Darrow is dead, and so is your client if you leave written advocacy to the baby lawyers. http://www.appellaterecord.com/2010/03/articles/appellate-practice-1/what-is-an-appellate-lawyer/

Comment on Changes for UT Law required, 1L legal writing course

2010-03-13T16:07:59Z

But now what you need to do is allow first-year students to choose between litigation-related writing and transactional drafting.

Comment on Italics or underlining?

2010-02-27T23:43:36Z

I agree--when a serif font is being used. When a sans serif font is employed, though, I feel less certain. In most sans serif type families, italics aren't "real" italics--they are Roman letters angled slightly to the right. These italics subtract from the crisp, clean, more-white-space feeling that one otherwise might get from a sans serif page. And yes, sometimes it's hard to recognize when a sans serif character is italicized and when not. Some firms and courts use italics for footnotes (usually Garner-style citation footnotes), in 10 or 11 points. In that situation, I think underlined citations work as well as, and probably better than, italicized citations. I think that bolded cites, mentioned by another commenter, are distracting--they shout and keep the eye from paying sufficient attention to the rest of the text. Bolding in such situations started, I think, with electric typewriters. I did it then, too. But I think it's unnecessary now.

I'm currently reading a book about Supreme Court justices (sale purchase from Amazon), written by a practicing lawyer who italicizes cites and for emphasis, but also underlines, with thick black rules, for added emphasis. You see why I don't name book or author. It is the most distracting method of emphasizing I have ever seen. It's an example, I think, of how members of our profession tend to be "belt and suspender" writers. If one is good, two are better--and bargain, sell, grant, and convey is sublime.

An earlier comment noted the current requirement of the Supreme Ct. of Virginia that briefs be 14-pt. in specified fonts, double-spaced. That court's opinions continue to be issued in double-spaced Courier, with citations underlined. I believe the Court's Courier is 12, not 14-pt.

Comment on Italics or underlining?

2010-02-21T01:47:46Z

Underlining is, as you say, a vestige of the era of typewriters. More specifically, it was meant to signal the typesetter at the printing press to switch to an oblique font, which is italics. So they do literally mean the same thing, it's just that final manuscripts would have underlines, while the prints from a letterpress would use italics.

Wayne says:
Agreed. But which should a lawyer use in a document created with Word and printed on a desktop printer?

Comment on Does anyone write memos?

2010-02-20T21:16:33Z

Why don't we refuse to hire anybody other than legal writing adjuncts who ARE in TOUCH with what's happening in the real world. That way students will be able to do useful writing rather than academic mumbo jumbo.

Comment on What they're teaching my kids about punctuation and grammar

2010-02-18T21:42:49Z

Bryan Garner's The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, para. 10.47 states: "When appropriate, use a coordinating conjunction to gein a sentence to emphaise contrast (but, yet), additional support for a proposition (and), an alternative (or), or a logical conclusion (so)." I don't agree with Garner on everything, but I think he makes sense here.

Comment on Italics or underlining?

2010-02-13T05:27:45Z

My mileage differs regarding the relative distractingness of the two practices; regardless, better to avoid any unnecessary distraction. If Locating a citation on the page a second faster is that important—why?—consider Bryan Garner's recommended citation placement in a footnote.