Ways to save yourself time in Legal Writing

Dear 1L, Here’s a legal-writing tip that will save you time this fall.

1️⃣ In the legal world, we spell the word “judgment” without an “e.” 

—> Change your Word settings so they autocorrect “judgement” to “judgment” when you type.

Although both spellings work in the non-legal context, now that you’re joining the legal world, it’d be a good idea to start using the “judgment” spelling in everything you write.

2️⃣ When typing a court name, we do NOT use superscript.

—> Change your settings so the system doesn’t superscript the “st,” “nd,” “rd,” or “th” in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.

3️⃣ The word “at” in legal citations is never capitalized.

—> Change your settings so stop auto-capitalizing the first letter after you type a period + space.

4️⃣ The adjective form of “tort” is “tortious,” not “tortuous.”

—> Change your settings to accept the “tortious” spelling.

There are other words, symbols, and terms that the default Word settings get wrong for legal-writing purposes, but the 4 above are the ones that come up the most.

🗳️ What other default settings don’t work with legal writing?

Fondly,

💌 Amanda

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