Dear Legal Writer:

Put a comma or period INSIDE the quotation marks.

Do this regardless of whether that comma or period appeared in the original, quoted material.

Scope: U.S. Legal Writing*

Here are two examples.

1️⃣ Mistake No. 1:

The items don’t make sense with the words setting up the list.

🔻 Example: “The applicant must submit a filing fee, a copy of the permit, and fill out a form.”

The culprit is easier to detect if you diagram:

I knew it would happen eventually, but wow, it still sucked.

Last evening, as I played the otherwise terrible day back in my mind, the review was the thing that really stuck in my craw.

Then a real friend came through for me.

And I emphasize “real.”

🔹 Old, obsolete way:

-Use complex words non-lawyers won’t know.
-Use no charts, timelines, or photographs.
-Add emphasis with boldface and italics.
-Write in Times New Roman font.
-Use acronyms for party names.
-Use footnotes to save space.
-Maximize use of legalese.

To me, marking edits in red ink is like using ALLCAPS in an email.

Where ALLCAPS signifies shouting, red ink signifies barking.

The result is a bloody butchering of the pages:
—> the draft looks like a crime scene,
—> the junior lawyer feels skewered.

▪️ “I love ‘But’ at the beginning of a sentence, and I never put ‘However’ at the beginning—almost never.”

— Justice Antonin Scalia (Garner, 13 The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing (2010), at 60.)

▪️ “‘However,’ is a ‘ponderous’ way to [start a sentence].”

And wish Chris Schandevel happy birthday today! To celebrate, he’s shared a fabulous gift with you:

It is 74 obest legal-writing tips:

all packed together into one Brief-Writing Ninja Legal Style Guide.

And it’s absolutely free.

1️⃣ Remember #Dear1L?

Yeah, that was the hashtag I started and grew to 2,810 followers.

—I started #DearLegalWriter, too. That one I grew to 1,722 followers.

Then LinkedIn said ❌ to hashtags.*

👉 Lesson: Be careful building on rented land.

You use the word “would” in front of several of your verbs.

E.g.,
—“Plaintiff would drive 45 minutes longer for the new role.”

—“Plaintiff would contribute $100,000 to the fund.”

In each, there’s ambiguity:

Learn these today so you don’t get points off in law school:

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.

Three years ago, I started a pinboard to help me stay motivated.

It hangs on the wall next to where I write.

On it, I’ve collected 10 mottos.

1: Don’t compare yourself to other people. You do YOU.
2: People think about you FAR less than you believe.

📍 At this point in time

✅ “Currently” is better

*

📍 At the present time

✅ “Now” is better

Dear Legal Writer,

Back when I was drafting briefs all the time, I often faced a “this” vs. “that” dilemma:

—It came up most when I needed to describe an argument made by the other side before I could explain that the argument didn’t work.

Here are 3 examples:

1️⃣

❌ Instead of:

"For a claim of negligence to be successful, it must be shown that a duty of care existed."

A most unexpected eventuality:

My book’s just hit #1 in the “Law” category!

Now, I’m not so naive.
Nothing’s guaranteed,
The rank is just for one day.