A Form And Style Manual For Lawyers

All lawyers write, and the documents they write must be clear, technically perfect, and effective. This concise manual guides lawyers, law students, and paralegals through all phases of the writing process, from preparing to write to polishing a finished draft. Written in accessible, easy-to-understand language, it offers practical suggestions on outlining and establishing deadlines as well as comprehensive, jargon-free advice on grammar, punctuation, usage, document formatting, editing and proofreading. The manual is written by an experienced teacher and practitioner and is intended as a reference for lawyers at all levels of experience who know what they want to write but who might have forgotten the details of the more mechanical aspects of writing. Uncluttered by lengthy examples or exercises, this short reference work provides brief illustrations to clarify the text and focuses on helping writers produce legal documents of all types that are easily read, technically accurate, and effective.

While other manuals cover citation conventions, The Lawyer's Editing Manual covers all the rest that the legal writer -- and the editor -- ought to know: conventions that underlie effective formal prose, including grammar and punctuation, the effective use of quotations, and usage and style. "Rules" -- meaning conventions most universally accepted -- are stated, but so are their exceptions and, when possible, the logic for each. The legal writer's ability to communicate to the reader directly and clearly is guided not just by "correct" prose, but by stylistic conventions that further its effectiveness. The Lawyer's Editing Manual thus includes advice on unambiguous word choice and modifier placement, conciseness, sentence and paragraph structure, and effective transitions. The manual ends with conventions inspired less by consensus than by the reader's reliance on consistency, such as whether and what to capitalize or how to treat abbreviations, symbols, and lists. For these, it matters less what the writer or editor chooses to do than that the choice be consistently applied: such details should never distract from the sense of what is being written. In short, The Lawyer's Editing Manual will help legal writers craft or edit clear, concise, connected prose. It is an invaluable tool to ensure that the writer's message reaches the reader's understanding enhanced, not impeded, by the form of its communication.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to the essential rules of legal writing. Unlike most style or grammar guides, it focuses on the special needs of legal writers, answering a wide spectrum of questions about grammar and style -- both rules and exceptions. It also gives detailed, authoritative advice on punctuation, capitalization, spelling, footnotes, and citations, with illustrations in legal context. Designed for law students, law professors, practicing lawyers, and judges, the work emphasizes the ways in which legal writing differs from other styles of technical writing. Its how-to sections deal with editing and proofreading, numbers and symbols, and overall document design. Features: * Cautions on use of 500 stuffy phrases and needless legalisms, along with their everyday English translations * Details rules for 800 words with required prepositions in certain contexts * Explains the correct usage of more than 1,000 words that are often troublesome to legal writers * Gives tips on preparing briefs and other court documents, opinion letters and demand letters, research memos, and contracts * Provides model documents of all types of legal documents and pleadings Reviews 200 terms of art that take on new meanings in legal contexts

The focus of this manual is not what provisions to include in a given contract, but instead how to express those provisions in prose that is free ofthe problems that often afflict contracts.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

This public domain book is an open and compatible implementation of the Uniform System of Citation.

Available to the public for the first time, "The Solicitor General's Style Guide" consists of three manuals used by the United States Office of the Solicitor General in preparing briefs to be filed in the Supreme Court of the United States: Office of the Solicitor General Citation Manual, Office of the Solicitor General Supplement to the Supreme Court Rules, and Office of the Solicitor General Writing Preferences. Supreme Court Justice Scalia and legal writing guru Bryan Garner have extolled the Solicitor General's briefs as models for other lawyers to follow. Now the citation and style secrets behind those briefs are available to lawyers and fans of the Solicitor General and the Supreme Court. In "The Solicitor General's Style Guide" you will learn gems like: What term did Solicitor General Charles Fried consider a "barbarism," ordering its "total extirpation" from the Solicitor General's briefs? What punctuation does the Office consider "ugly"? How does the Solicitor General decide whether to form the possessive of a word ending in "s" by adding just an apostrophe or an apostrophe "s"? When does the Solicitor General use ibid. instead of id.? And much more "The Solicitor General's Style Guide "cannot help you write like the Solicitor General, but now you can cite like the Solicitor General Praise for The Solicitor General's Style Guide: "As U2 might say, Jack Metzler's version of the Solicitor General's Style Guide is even better than the real thing. It is, in essence, a Bluebook for Supreme Court practitioners, touching all things style and citation as they relate to briefs filed at the Court - tremendously useful for the lawyers who practice there." - Tom Goldstein, Supreme Court expert and publisher of SCOTUSblog. "No wonder the writing standards of the Solicitor General's office are held in such high regard The Solicitor General is the only Justice Department official required by statute to be "learned in the law." This style manual shows how seriously the holders of that office take that responsibility. Forget the Bluebook - the Solicitor General's common-sense rules of punctuation, citation, capitalization, and italicization are now public, and all lawyers need to pay heed." - Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent of The National Law Journal, has covered the Supreme Court for 33 years.

An indispensable aid for anyone who prepares legal documents ? including law students, law professors, practicing lawyers, and judges ? Garner's The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style provides the comprehensive guide to the essential rules of legal writing. It gives detailed, authoritative advice on grammar, style, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, footnotes, and citations, with illustrations in legal contexts. The Redbook focuses on the special needs of legal writers, emphasizing the ways in which legal writing differs from other styles of technical writing. Its how-to sections cover editing and proofreading, numbers and symbols, overall document design, and more. The Redbook also gives tips on preparing briefs and other court documents, opinion letters, demand letters, research memos, and contracts. It explains the correct usage of and provides everyday English translations for more than 1,000 words that are often troublesome to legal writers, 200 terms of art that take on new meanings in legal contexts, 800 words with required prepositions in certain contexts, and 500 stuffy phrases and needless legalisms.

This concise paperback focuses on the nuances of legal writing style and provides novice legal writers with the skills they need to polish their writing. Guide to Legal Writing Style, Fourth Edition, intended as an ancillary to any basic legal