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Legal writing is no laughing matter

25/09/2019

“The minute you read something that you can’t understand,
you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer.”
— Will Rogers

Although this quotation by Will Rogers is humorous, bad legal writing is no laughing matter.

A bankruptcy attorney in the State of Minnesota was publicly reprimanded for unprofessional conduct and ordered to pay court costs after repeatedly filing documents the court considered “unintelligible” because they contained numerous spelling and typographical errors. Additionally, the attorney was required to attend legal writing courses. The judge wrote in his opinion, “Public confidence in the legal system is shaken ... when a lawyer’s correspondence and legal documents are so filled with [these] errors that they are virtually incomprehensible.” (In re Hawkins, 502 N.W.2d 770 (1993)).

If only that attorney would have had access to the professional services of WeProofread.it
 
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