Wacky Ways of Writing
Dear 1L, Lawyers have some wacky ways of writing things.
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.
Although both spellings work in the non-legal context, now that you’re joining the legal world, you should probably just 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 to 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.
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There are other words, symbols, and terms that the default Word settings get wrong for legal-writing purposes, but the four above are the ones that come up the most.
👉 I have collected these and dozens of additional writing tips in a Global Cheat Sheet for you.
See Appendix D to “Dear 1L: Notes to Nurture A New Legal Writer,” available here:
Fondly,
💌 Amanda
P.S. Starting sometime this fall, I’ll be moving my “Dear 1L” letters off of LinkedIn and onto email only.
You can sign up here:
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🗳️ Lawyers, 2Ls, 3Ls: What other word quirks should 1Ls be looking out for?