Dear Legal Writer, I’m getting myself pumped for the LA City Attorney’s office this afternoon. I’m going to teach them not to “CUSS”!

2025Legal Writing
Written By Amanda Haverstick

That’s my acronym for 4 bad words in legal writing:

“comprise” — lawyers always get this wrong

“utilize” — a terrible alternative for “use”

“same” — the cause of a century of confusion

“such” — a useless lawyerism

I will be explaining why these words cause problems and sharing several examples to demonstrate why.

Thank you in advance to John Snow and the Legal and Trial Training Division for hosting me.

30 minutes out . . .

Let’s go!

Wish me luck?

💌 Amanda

Amanda Haverstick
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Dear 1L, You will write the words “plaintiff” and “defendant” a TON this year. But there’s a trap: sometimes you capitalize them, and sometimes you don’t.
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I drafted 7 perfect pages (or so I thought), but all I heard back was: