Legal Writing

?In All Respects?

By Ken Adams

Here’s another entry in the rhetorical-emphasis hall of shame?in all respects. Here’s an example:

This agreement is in all respects governed by Minnesota law.

By omitting in all respects you lose nothing except surplus words. The same goes for in all material respects?use instead materially, but remember that it’s ambiguous. (For more on that, see chapter 8 of the second edition of MSCD or the third article in this periodical.)

Full post as published by AdamsDrafting on August 09, 2008 (boomark / email).