Dear 1L,

“Because” is a key word in legal writing. Use it.

But be careful after a negative verb: “because” causes ambiguity.

Here are some examples:

1️⃣ She was not promoted because she is female.

—Was she promoted? That isn’t clear.
—Perhaps she was promoted, just not because she is female.

👉 Try these options instead:

Because she is female, she was not promoted.
-or-
She was promoted, but not because she is female.

2️⃣ John did not go to court because of the litigation.

—Did John go to court? Again, it’s not clear.
—Perhaps he did go to court, but he went for a reason other than the litigation.

👉 Try these options instead:

Because of the litigation, John did not go to court.
-or-
John went to court, but the litigation was not the reason.
———————
Final Point:

Most say that in addition to restructuring negative-because sentences as shown above, you can also remove ambiguity by adding a comma before the “because.”

I disagree.

To be sure, it’s fine grammatically to add a comma:

She was not promoted, because she is female.
-or-
John did not go to court, because of the litigation.

But the comma looks awkward to me.

👉 That alone could give your Reader pause and make them question your sentence’s meaning.

So I’d stick with rearranging over comma’ing.

🗳️ What say you? How do you deal with “because” when you’re writing a “not” sentence?

Fondly,
💌 Amanda

#DearLegalWriter