Legal Writing

Impertinent or descriptive? Judge refuses to strike these phrases from driver’s suit against officer

A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has rejected a motion to strike the phrases “driving while black” and “contempt of cop” from a lawsuit filed by a black driver against a white deputy sheriff.

Nov 8, 2018 11:00 AM CST

Our shifting meanings: Test your knowledge of modern usage

In each question that follows, one choice is a misusage that wouldn’t pass muster with a good copy editor. See whether you can recognize the traditionally correct forms.

Nov 1, 2018 1:30 AM CDT

How do you say it? Try this quiz to evaluate your pronunciation skills

Over time, words can change in spelling, meaning and pronunciation. In this quiz, choose the pronunciation favored in the late 19th century through the 20th.

Oct 1, 2018 1:25 AM CDT

New web platform helps users research meanings of words used in Constitution, Supreme Court opinions

A web platform that provides law-related historic linguistics information was announced Monday by Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Sep 17, 2018 8:00 AM CDT

Legal writing pro is helping teach AI to draft contracts (podcast)

Ken Adams has brought his contract expertise to a Pittsburgh artificial intelligence startup. The transactional lawyer stopped practicing law “the regular way,” as he puts it, in 2006 and devoted himself full time to his interest in contract language. After constant exploration on the topic, the 57-year-old 2009 ABA Journal…

Sep 12, 2018 6:00 AM CDT

Supreme Court’s visible edits show misspellings and missteps; is there a ‘minuscule’ error?

The U.S. Supreme Court has corrected misspellings, wrong word choices, missing words and grammatical missteps in several Supreme Court opinions this term, according to a website that reveals the corrections.

Aug 8, 2018 6:05 AM CDT

Strive for clarity and context in emails that address legal questions

There’s a widespread problem in the way junior lawyers answer questions by email. They tend to respond to moderately complex legal questions merely with answers—without explicitly repeating the question.

Aug 1, 2018 2:20 AM CDT

Can a town be a museum? A case may hinge on the precision of definitions

Does the usual meaning of a word carry over to a legal definition? The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on this question in a case involving sports hero Jim Thorpe.

Jul 1, 2018 1:25 AM CDT

Gaining the confidence to write what you have to say

When I started my law blog in June 2016, I did so without too much trepidation. I was essentially briefing cases and writing about my practice in ways I was pretty comfortable with. But then I wanted to branch out. I started to have ideas about things other than recent…

Jun 12, 2018 7:00 AM CDT

Inclusive legal writing: We can honor good grammar and societal change at the same time

To effect change, we can set an example through precision in our own word choices. When in doubt about the proper pronoun or title, choose the correct and inclusive one or respectfully ask.

Apr 1, 2018 2:10 AM CDT

Law review editors missed a few, so we have this usage skills quiz for you

Law review editors do their best to comply with prevailing literary usage. In this quiz, the language hasn’t yet come close to accepting the “incorrect” choices as standard written English.

Apr 1, 2018 2:05 AM CDT

Bryan Garner reflects on his friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia in ‘Nino and Me’ (podcast)

To Bryan Garner, editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary, Justice Antonin Scalia was a friend, a mentor, a collaborator and a fellow lover of words. In the wake of Scalia’s death on Feb. 13, 2016, Garner reflected back over their relationship, from their first brief introduction in 1988 to the trip they took to Asia together in the last weeks of Scalia’s life. Those reflections turned into his latest book, Nino and Me: My Unusual Friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia.

Jan 17, 2018 8:30 AM CST

Kavanaugh lands in top six in ‘Scalia-ness’ ranking of SCOTUS contenders; who is No. 1?

Before Neil M. Gorsuch became a U.S. Supreme Court justice, a study of potential Supreme Court nominees had rated him as more “Scalia-like” than Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. The description proved true as Gorsuch took originalist positions and sided with Justice Clarence Thomas.…

Jan 16, 2018 8:00 AM CST

ABAJournal.com to host Your Voice

The ABA Journal wants to further facilitate conversations among lawyers about their profession. Therefore, we are revising our policy on unsolicited submissions to allow the legal profession to share, demonstrate and debate the issues and events facing them. We are now accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary…

Jan 3, 2018 1:00 PM CST

Writing vs. Good Writing: Make the languorous doldrums of reading disappear

“All styles are good,” Voltaire said, “except that which bores.” The good writer, in other words, frets a little about piquing the reader’s interest sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph—never descending into unremittingly dull stretches. The French even have a word for those dull stretches: longueurs.

Jan 1, 2018 3:00 AM CST