Redlines
Law & Culture
The importance of signposting — and following through
Vol. 105 No. 3 (2021) | Leaving AfghanistanSignposting is easy to illustrate. Not this: “The defendant claims . . . . The defendant also claims . . . . Finally, the defendant claims . . . .” […]
Court Administration
Another plea to hold the acronyms (PDF)
Vol. 105 No. 2 (2021) | Judicial IndependenceFirst, a technical distinction: an acronym is pronounced as a word (“scuba” = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus); an initialism is pronounced letter by letter (“IBM”). Informally, “acronym” is often used for […]
Court Administration, Judging, State Courts, Federal Courts
At Least Do The Easy Stuff (PDF)
Vol. 105 No. 1 (2021) | The Courts HeldIn these two examples, I have done very little rewriting. I simply used plain words and cut unnecessary words (including the egregiously unnecessary parentheticals). And in the second one, I […]
Judging
Hold the Parentheticals, Please (PDF)
Vol. 101 No. 1 (2017) | Citizen-centered CourtsOur writing guru Joseph Kimble offers tips for enlisting the dash and for avoiding legalese and silly, distracting parentheticals. Original According to the Plaintiff, Defendants Exxon Mobil Corporation (“Exxon”), Badger […]
Judging, State Courts, Federal Courts
A better first paragraph, please (PDF)
Vol. 101 No. 2 (2017) | Can science save justice?Start strong. Our writing guru, Joseph Kimble, breaks down an opinion’s first paragraph to show a better way. Original Pending before the Court is a letter motion by plaintiff Amy […]
Judging
On Names, Pronouns, and Paragraphing (PDF)
Vol. 104 No. 3 (2020-21) | Judges on the MarchLawsuits involve people. And rather than turn them into a disembodied “Plaintiff” and “Defendant,” opinions might better use their names. The opinions will be more direct and more human. (Of […]
Court Administration
Headings, please. The more, the better (PDF)
Vol. 104 No. 2 (2020) | Coping with COVIDREDLINES If there’s a good reason why many judicial opinions don’t use informative headings, I haven’t heard it. For readers, headings are a boon to navigating through the opinion. And […]
Court Administration
The Plague of String Citations (PDF)
Vol. 104 No. 1 (2020) | A Clearer ViewCheck out the original paragraph from this opinion, which dealt with a motion to quash two subpoenas on grounds of attorney-client privilege. In the entire 262-word paragraph, covering 20 lines, […]
Law & Culture
Zap Multiword Prepositions, Please (PDF)
Vol. 102 No. 2 (2018) | Rights That Made The World RightProbably the worst small-scale fault in legal writing is unnecessary prepositional phrases, a fault that this column will keep going after. A noxious variant is the multiword preposition — a […]