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D is for drafting, legal drafting

By Stephens

What is legal drafting? It involves writing that deals with rights and responsibilities in the form of contracts, deeds, and such. Legislative drafting is a segment of it that deals with writing laws.

Wayne Schiess, on his blog in 2005, said legal drafting is an independent area of expertise [http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/wschiess/legalwriting/2005/10/you-must-actually-study-legal-drafting.html]. To show that you need more than a law degree, he offered this little quiz.

How much do you really know about legal drafting? Here's a short quiz:

1. Name a text on legal drafting.

2. What is the proper legal-drafting definition of shall?

3. What is the difference between writing "such activities" and "those activities"?

4. Why do drafters write "Four Hundred and no 100s dollars ($400.00)" and do they need to double-up that way?

5. Explain the drafting problem in this sentence: "The rule applies to associations and corporations with offices in Texas."

I can answer these questions; and I used to teach legal drafting a decade ago. But I don't do it alone any more. Now I only team teach drafting with a practicing lawyer in the area of law concerned. Because the nuances of legal drafting change with the substrata of the governing law in a legal practice area.

I have worked as a consultant with a law firm to produce plain language contracts and so on. But I wish the firms would take this on directly--producing client documentation in plain legal language. It involves too much back-and-forth negotiation over words and grammar and stops being fun for me.

Do you know a law firm that works with plain legal language?

Full post as published by Building Rapport on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).