Here at the Atlei School of English we teach a range of
specialist courses in Legal English. I’ve just finished teaching English for
Commercial Lawyers course, which includes writing advice and practice, plus
language feedback not only from an experienced English language trainer but
also from a qualified lawyer from a respected law firm.
1) As with all writing, think about your audience – writing to another lawyer will be very different to writing to a client who is a layperson.
2) If you’re aiming for clarity in your writing, then the Plain English campaign has two excellent writing guides. The A to Z of alternative words gives you the ‘plain English’ versions of more formal words. Of course, this could also help you to formalize your English if it’s too informal. Again, the key is knowing what’s appropriate:
The A to Z to alternative words (PDF)
More specifically, The A to Z guide to legal phrases (PDF) gives clear definitions of many English legal words and expressions.
3) Clarity will help you to avoid ambiguity and grey areas. A funny example of ambiguity from criminal law is the newspaper headline ‘Juvenile court to try shooting defendant’. In legal
English ‘try’ means ‘put on trial’, but the meaning in general English is
‘attempt’, which would mean that the court tried to shoot the defendant
who was on trial!
5) Use the active voice to make it clear who should do what, such as ‘The seller shall deliver the goods’, rather than ‘the goods shall be delivered.’
6) Be aware of words which have different meanings in general and legal English. For example, in the sentence above, ‘The seller shall deliver the goods’, ‘shall’ means ‘must’, whereas in general English it’s used to make suggestions, such as ‘Shall we go to the pub?’
7) Be careful with numbers; to avoid confusion, always write them in words as well as figures. For instance, in English, £100.00 is one hundred pounds, not ten thousand pounds; a difference of nine thousand, nine hundred pounds!
8) Similarly, dates should be written in words. This date, 1/4/2015, is 1st April 2015 in British English but 4th January in US English.
9) Don’t (do not) use contractions in formal legal writing.
10) Legal English still uses a lot of formal adverbs of reference such as ‘herein’ to mean ‘in this document.’ While they can cause difficulties for the lay reader, when used correctly these adverbs help the reader to navigate the text.
11) Get a good legal dictionary. I recommend the Oxford Dictionary of Law
12) Be accurate – a lawyer’s language is their tool. Use the Spelling and Grammar tool and proofread everything!
I hope this advice is useful and whether you’re a lawyer or a layperson we’d love to hear your comments and tips on writing legal English!
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