Be careful how you define a term in a brief—a joint post with Lindsey Lawton.
Dear Legal Writer,
I was reviewing a few 1L fall memos this week, and I came across a problem that I also see regularly in litigators’ briefs:
▪️ The response to ABC Corp.’s (“ABC”) motion is due on __.
I wasn’t sure if I was just being nit-picky, or if there was, indeed, something wrong about the defined term.
Luckily, Lindsey was on my same page. Here’s the problem we see in the sentence:
It defines “ABC Corp.’s” as “ABC.”
That means every time you again write “ABC,” you need to make sure you are talking about “ABC Corp.’s.” as opposed to “ABC Corp.”
That can’t be what you mean.
True, your reader will figure it out, but that’s no excuse. As lawyers, we’re trusted to be precise, and if you’re going to go to all the trouble of defining ABC Corp. as ABC, you should do so accurately.
🔹 How to define the term accurately:
You have two options:
1. Rephrase so that the term is not possessive in the spot where you’re defining it.
2. Go ahead and put the apostrophe + s in your parenthetical. If you define “ABC Corp.’s” as “ABC’s,” it stands to reason that the non-possessive form is “ABC.”
🔹 Should you define the term at all?
Finally, there’s a more fundamental question here: Should you even bother to use a definition at all for ABC Corp.?
These days, unless I were discussing another entity in the brief with a similar name, I would not bother:
The only reason to define a term is that a definition is needed for clarity, and absent there being an “ABC, Inc.” or similar entity in the same case, no reader will be confused if you start referring to ABC Corp. as ABC.
The era of litigators’ using definitions for everything under the sun in briefs has long passed (at least at the appellate level).
That said, many of your firms may still require defined terms, and at the trial court level, they seem to be the norm.
But if you are going to bother defining a term, please be precise about it!
Otherwise, your definition may cause your reader added confusion, not added clarity.
🌈 A & L
P.S. These days, whenever I’m not sure about a legal-writing issue, Lindsey is my first call.
—Lindsey is an appellate lawyer based in Tallahassee, Florida, who started her own firm in 2020 after clerking for 13 years for appellate courts in Florida, including for the Florida Supreme Court.
—I first met Lindsey here in 2022, and I was instantly drawn to her posts. She always seems to have an insightful take on my questions, and she regularly teaches me new ways to approach the topics that both of us like to write about.
—Some of the best exchanges I’ve had here have been in the comments under one of Lindsey’s posts. I hope you’ll start to read and engage with them; you’ll learn so much.
Have you followed Lindsey yet? If not, you really ought to: Lindsey Lawton
🗳️ What’s your take on the defined-term question?
#DearLegalWriter