Legal Writing Is Not What It Should Be

Abstract:     
This Article presents and discusses nine reasons that legal writing is not as good as it should be. The reasons include inadequate preparation in college and law school, over-reliance on forms, complacency, a misguided sense of professionalism, and time pressure. The Article concludes by offering four recommendations: continue to improve law-school legal-writing programs and begin including legal drafting and plain English, train new lawyers in editing, require legal-writing training in continuing legal education, and encourage lawyers to take more individual responsibility for improvement.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Legal Writing, Style, Self Expression, Undergraduate, Knowledge Telling, Legal Analysis, Legal Drafting, Judicial Opinions, Time Pressure, Forms, Revising, Editing, Over-Formality, Complacent, Mediocre

Accepted Paper Series