A Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing
Author:
Borman, Deborah L.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2019
24 chapters
have results for short happy guide legal writing
Introduction 1 13 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Welcome to the Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing. This book will dispel the notion that legal writing is awful or terrible and alleviate your fears about legal writing. Legal writing is not so much
- Despite the importance and excellence of writing in law practice, or maybe because of it, legal writing is without a doubt the most feared course prior to, and during the first year of law school. Students are intimidated by the prospect of writing, let alone legal writing, and bring a variety of pre-conceived notions about themselves, the writing course, and their abilities to the legal writing classroom.
- The primary aim of legal writing is to translate your legal thinking or reasoning into writing. You will spend a great deal of time and effort learning the process of legal reasoning—thinking about and analyzing the law—before you ever write or type a single word on the page or screen.
- Lawyers have a reputation for excellent written communication. We excel at storytelling and persuasion and are experts at using these arts to win disputes (and to mitigate damages). Writing is the specialized tool of the successful attorney in storytelling, persuasion, and winning (and mitigation); specialized because we are trained to think through the resolution of legal issues and to express our analyses in writing.
- The process of constructing a legal analysis, which not difficult , does involve a commitment to learning, self-training, and practice to cultivate your mind to think about form and content of writing in entirely new directions. The legal writing learning process, therefore, demands time, energy, and commitment. By time, energy, and commitment, I do not mean purely time-consuming, however. Consumption of time has an understood negative connotation. Instead what I am telling you is that if you give yourself the proper time and space to learn the framework for legal analysis, to practice the art of constructing a legal analysis, to teach yourself to think, and to test yourself on your process through practice, you will possess a skill that you will have for life and that can never be taken away from you: the productive, legal-analytical mind.
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Chapter 4 Happy Citations 29 14 results (showing 5 best matches)
- This short lesson in citation is to allay your initial trepidation and acts merely as an introduction to the concept of citation. You will learn the intricacies of citation for all purposes of legal writing according to the rules of an additional guide, such as
- ALWD Guide to Legal Citation
- or the ALWD Guide,
- ALWD Guide
- Short Form
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Copyright Page 2 results
- a short & happy guide
- The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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- in A Short & Happy Guide to Constitutional Law.
- One thing that causes confusion at the onset of law school is the dual court system, in other words, the federal and state court systems that govern our constituency. Each level of government has its own set of courts, at both the state and the federal level. As you will learn in your legal studies, some types of legal issues are resolved entirely in state courts, while other types of legal issue are handled entirely in federal courts. Not to confuse you more, but still other legal issues are handled in
- To understand the types of written documents you will file and find in each of these courts, be sure to become familiar with the hierarchy of the court system and which court hears which kind of claim, as we will discuss in the next chapter.
- To resolve the conundrum Marshall declared Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional, writing that Section 13 granted original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court in excess of that specified in Article III.
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Part I Short & Happy Legal History 2 results
- Short & Happy Legal History
- Today’s news is yesterday’s history. Before we get down to the business of law school legal writing, it would do us well to take a look at groundwork for legal writing and place legal writing in the larger context of the U.S. laws. Legal analysis is the foundation of our country and all of the laws that create order and democracy. That is why excellent, clear, organized written communication is vital.
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Table of Contents 17 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter 9 Writing Under Pressure 103 19 results (showing 5 best matches)
- All of these happy examples seem like a fun way to spend your day (and they are), but the reality is you will not always have all day to construct your legal analyses either when you are drafting writing assignments in law school or when you are practicing law. The truth is attorneys lead very busy lives and have to balance many different professional and personal obligations.
- Getting started on your analytical writing is harder than the actual writing. I can think of 25 things I can do to procrastinate getting started on my writing.
- If you get stuck in one section of your assignment while writing under time constraints make sure to keep writing. Move to another section and keep going. Something you write in another section may trigger that inspiration you were seeking in the previous section and you can always go back.
- Everyone is probably telling you to outline your writing and everything else. You should do that. Is there such thing as a perfect outline? No, there is not. Outlining can mean as little as jotting down your organization in single words to fleshing out your ideas in complete sentences. Eventually you will write those complete sentences; just get started in the easiest way you can.
- Sitting in a timed writing assignment or exam and trying to figure out the perfect word or sentence is like hitting a tap in putt with the back of your putter blindfolded because you think there is no possible way you can miss, and when you miss the rest of the day is ruined just like the rest of your writing assignment is ruined by wasting your time.
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Final Thoughts on Legal Writing 137 10 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Excellent legal writing is both a privilege and an art. Being able to craft concise and clear written, legal communication is a privilege because you are a small minority of professionals who learn to take on other people’s legal issues and larger societal problems with the goal of resolution. Excellent legal writing is tremendously difficult to cultivate and is truly an art when achieve. Written legal analysis, as noted in the introduction and first chapters of this book, is the foundation of our country. When you draft a comprehensible and clear legal analysis on behalf of a client you are contributing to the resolution of problems, small and large, and to written legal history.
- The practice of law is perhaps the most rewarding work of any professional career. Cultivating an expertise on written legal analysis is not a fast process, but once you have the analytical thought process down your legal writing will become clear, organized, and persuasive.
- Work hard, write well, and be happy.
- You are entering a new professional community and learning a new intellectual discourse. Perfecting your legal writing is part of your training to prepare you to join that community.
- You cannot become a lawyer in an afternoon. Learning to practice law requires sustained effort and repetition of reasoning exercises reduced to writing.
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Chapter 10 Professor’s Pet Peeves: Grammar and Structure 111 33 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Although in written legal communication we want to avoid archaic legalese, we do not want to take legal writing all the way to everyday colloquial language, dude. Proofread your writing for casual, conversational language. Law communication requires traditional formality and clear and concise writing.
- Nearly every legal writer is tempted to use “which” instead of “that” in their legal writing. My advice is that you “ ” in your written work.
- The courts and corporate entities should not be referred to as “they,” or other human referential pronouns. Do not write “the court thought. . .” or “the company felt. . . .” Entities such as corporations, states, governments, counties, courts, regions, schools, and departments are not considered human for the purpose and in the context of legal writing.
- Please avoid passive voice in legal writing. Legal readers really appreciate active voice in almost most instances. Passive voice usually indicates vagueness or confusion over the subject,
- The following is my list of pet peeves for grammar and sentence construction in legal writing.
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- The Charter of Connecticut came about to rectify the fact that Connecticut lacked any legal governing doctrine in 1660 [Connecticut was officially founded in 1788]. Because Connecticut was a colony not recognized by the Crown [Charles II at the time], the governor of Connecticut sailed back to England [no easy journey, told to have taken over two months] with the Charter in hand pending the King’s approval. The governor succeeded in his journey. Although the Charter concentrated more on property rights rather than individual rights, it was the first step in setting up a clear legal system for the settlers.
- American law and rights are rooted in British law and rights. Over time in Britain, the rights initially held only by the monarch reached first the [upper] class barons, and then during the period of The Enlightenment trickled down to regular folk. These rights traveled across the ocean to the Colonies and became the framework for our Constitution and Bill of Rights. And guess what? Our laws and rights are all recorded in writing.
- The Massachusetts Body of Liberties was the first legal code compiled by the English colonists when they arrived in New England. The Body of Liberties was one of the earliest documents to outline individual rights, such as a right to trial by jury, and a right against cruel and unusual punishment. Not surprisingly, the Bill of Rights later included many points from the Body of Liberties.
- The Lords were non-plussed. Coke thus undertook the central role in framing and writing the Petition of Right.
- was the King of England from 1604 to 1625. Despite his commitment to peace and taking a pass on religious wars, he encountered serious conflicts with the British Parliament as a result of his “King-centered” values. James wrote these two missives,
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Part III Happy Writing Structure 2 results
- The beauty of writing and reading a legal analysis in an interoffice, predictive memorandum, is that we know how each document is organized. The framework for a legal analysis is recognized and memorized by every legal writer and reader and provides consistency in writing. Consistency also promotes efficiency. In these chapters we learn the basic structure of legal analysis for objective memos through a single legal writing assignment example.
- Happy Writing Structure
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Chapter 11 A Short & Happy Research Primer 123 19 results (showing 5 best matches)
- We already covered quite a bit here about objective and persuasive writing and constructing your legal analysis. But what about researching your own authority? Your professor, your librarian, and your Westlaw representative will teach you research in depth but I’ll provide a few tips here to get you started.
- Finally, dictionaries, Nutshells, and hornbooks are helpful in providing general background on a legal topic. Nutshells are abbreviated, concise treatises on specific topics, like a simplified hornbook, Nutshells are written by experts in the field and available as smaller, paperback books. Often you will find a Nutshell that corresponds specifically to a textbook you have in one of your law-topic courses.
- Secondary sources provide the big picture of your legal issue. Through secondary sources, you become familiar with the legal topic you need to research, frame the issues, and identify the applicable law. Secondary sources provide current information on your topic and also introduce you to “terms of art,” or phrases you may not hear outside of that particular area of the law.
- Encyclopedias and Legal Periodicals provide more general information on a broad range of topics. Legal Encyclopedias provided easy to read explanations of legal concepts. Encyclopedias will point to cases, statutes or law review articles on the topic of
- Legal Newsletters are also a good research resource. Generally, practice-oriented and non-scholarly, legal newsletters are published by professional organizations such as the American Bar Association as well as local, state, and county bar associations.
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Chapter 3 Happy Legal Authority: What Is Authority and How Is It Used? 21 19 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Your analysis of a particular legal issue or problem will be heavily dependent on precedent opinions or case law, comprising written opinions of the appellate review of a trial level case. Precedent is always at the heart of legal writing, whether for an inter-office memorandum assessing the viability or predicting the outcome of a client’s case, or in a persuasive brief being written on behalf of your client for the courts.
- Think of it this way: you are standing in the ground floor lobby of a three-story building. In order to write an effective and accurate legal analysis, imagine that you have to hop on the elevator and research all three floors of this building. (Disclaimer: depending on what you are writing and what your professor prefers, you may only need to hit one of the three floors.)
- In terms of the first tier of authority, there are three types relevant to your written legal analyses: case law, statutes, and regulations.
- depth in your legal writing and research training. State and federal statutes are written and recorded in statute books and are also available in various online platforms. Municipal ordinances are the rules, regulations, or codes enacted into law by local government, as in cities and villages. Municipal ordinances include traffic regulations and housing regulations.
- Legal authority is the term used to describe the sources of the law that you use to support a legal analysis.
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Chapter 6 Small Scale Container: The Discussion/Analysis Section of the Legal Memo 59 10 results (showing 5 best matches)
- To prepare a successful written legal analysis, you will need to use a solid organizational structure. Your legal analysis needs to be communicated in a framework that the legal reader will understand and in the order that the reader expects to encounter the information. Throughout the remainder of your legal life, you will happily write the Discussion or Analysis section of your memos and briefs in some form of one of these legal frameworks. (There are other sections necessary to a complete a Legal Memo; those are discussed below in the Large Scale Container Chapter.)
- In my opinion, the IRAC format should be reserved for exam-writing, but some writing programs and or professors teach the IRAC paradigm to organize a legal analysis.
- The Rule is the announcement of the rule that court will use to resolve the legal issue. You will cite the rule to the precedent authority. . The statute is the guiding principal or underlying rule, but is not the Rule. Remember that in the U.S. legal system the Rule the court applies is derived from
- The framework for organizing the Analysis or Discussion portion of a written memo is often referred to as “Small Scale Organization.” The following chart provides some of the more commonly used frameworks for this Small Scale Organization of the Discussion or Analysis section in a Legal Memo:
- the applicable precedent. You will notice that I insert the initial letter from each component of the framework in parentheses prior to each example of that component. I advise that when you are first getting started drafting your analyses that you mark your TREACCs in the manner I describe. Marking each component will insure that you included the proper information in each section and will also alert your legal reader that you are writing within the framework.
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Chapter 5 Components of Written Legal Communication 41 23 results (showing 5 best matches)
- You now understand the background and foundation of our legal system, how the history intersects with legal practice, the types of legal authority, the way legal issues are expressed in writing, where to find authority, and how to tell your legal reader where you found your authority. You are thus ready to take on your own hypothetical client, begin to consider make your client’s legal predicament, how you might resolve it, and communicate that result in writing.
- This piece of writing you are to prepare is traditionally called the Legal Memo, Interoffice Memo, or Predictive Memo. In this assignment, you will analyze the legal problem, predict an outcome based on precedent, and make a recommendation for how the client should proceed, , provide legal advice.
- you just read? To articulate a successful legal analysis in writing you must explain:
- Bobby Bagel was out for drinks after work with his friends at Rounds, a City-owned outdoor brewpub. It was a warm day and he was wearing shorts.
- Here you provide a short conclusion and potentially some advice to the client based on your entire analysis:
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Part V Legal Writing Quick Tips 2 results
- There may not be any real shortcuts to great legal writing, because you have to commit the time and practice to perfect your craft. You can take numerous steps both to simplify and streamline your writing process, however. Your habits of writing and of mind will help you focus and produce your best work both in law school, and as a practicing attorney.
- Legal Writing Quick Tips
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Chapter 8 May You Please the Court 77 20 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Now that you are an expert on constructing a predictive legal analysis and know how to organize your Interoffice written communication into a framework that is easily recognizable to every legal reader, you are ready to dig into the structure of court filings or briefs.
- In these contrasting Issue Statements, Statements of Facts, and theories of the case, you almost get the idea that there are completely different legal issues before the court. That differentiation is common and desirable, as the writer-advocate frames the facts to support the legal theory he or she hopes will prevail for the client in court.
- In a persuasive brief, the Conclusion is very short and simple:
- Legal briefs are quite similar to your Legal Memo. The particular components depend on what your court jurisdiction requires for briefs. My advice to you: Check your jurisdiction! State courts and Federal courts have certain rules for both the form and content of briefs. Within state and federal courts particular judges also have their own specific requirements. Before you file
- To flesh out the components of a legal brief, I will use an example from a real federal case, . Below I will quote from the briefs of each side of the legal dispute.
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Chapter 7 Happy Large Scale Organization: The Memo Container 65 10 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Note that the sample and tips provided in Chapters 4 and 5 do not include methods of doing your own legal research. The organization and framework are provided in a “closed universe” manner, similar to the way precedent and statutes will be provided to you to complete your initial written analysis assignments. I will provide some preliminary research tips for you in Chapter 11.
- At other times, however, because of a feeling of urgency about their legal matter, clients may text pertinent details, evidence, or even photos related to their legal claim.
- Below, I will discuss two Containers for your analysis of Ms. Rye’s potential dog bite claim. First, the Interoffice or Predictive Memo. Second, a shorter method of communication: the email memo or e-memo.
- Another way you might communicate the same analysis to your client in an expedited manner is via the shorter “E-memo” format.
- After you agree to work with a client, however, you may find that your client will send text messages for convenience and to obtain an immediate response. Sometimes client text messages are short questions about scheduling or timing like “what courtroom is the hearing in today?”
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Part II Sourcing and Citing the Law 1 result
- Because legal analysis is grounded in authoritative support, we have to have a good handle on our sources of authority. We also need to be accountable to the original source of the authority and accurately communicate to our legal reader where on earth we found that earth shattering support for our thesis. These chapters introduce legal authority and legal citation.
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About the Author v 1 result
- Deborah L. Borman is a Professor at the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Prior to her current appointment, Professor Borman taught legal analysis and advocacy courses at Northwestern, DePaul, and John Marshall in Chicago, and at Seattle University and the University of Denver. A citizen of the world, she considers Chicago her heart home.
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Acknowledgments iii 1 result
- This short book was long in the making. The lion’s share of my gratitude goes to my former students, teaching assistants, and research assistants, from to Chicago to Seattle, all who contributed ideas, humorous anecdotes, advice, creativity, and time in the interest of educating law students and future attorneys: Saloni Shah, Victoria Banks, Jonathan Kirschmeier, and Shareen Sarwar. Additionally, I thank Rachel Mika for her attention to detail, Karin Mika for being my Catcher in the Rye, LeighAnne Thompson for contributions both earthly and metaphysical, and Dianna Cramer for advice and artistic expertise. I could never do what I do without the support of my numerous friends and professor colleagues around the country; you are my family and I love you all. Finally, thanks to my editors at West for their extreme patience.
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- Publication Date: January 28th, 2019
- ISBN: 9781634599184
- Subject: Legal Writing
- Series: Short & Happy Guides
- Type: Overviews
- Description: You’re ready to take the plunge into law school (or you already have) and there is one big thing looming over you: LEGAL WRITING. You’ve heard that legal writing is hard. You’ve heard that legal writing is scary. You have not written anything since your mandatory college English class. Well, simmer down, you have found the antidote to your fear-based illness. This book takes you through the history, meaning, and purpose of legal writing in the American law. You will learn the essential form and substance necessary to craft an inter-office legal memo, helpful ideas for persuasive brief-writing, and tips for excelling in legal writing.
