Miscellaneous

Why is most legal writing so bad? And what can be done about it? Wayne Schiess tackles these questions in Legal Writing Is Not What It Should Be. Some of the causes and proposed solutions are institutional. But one of Wayne?s proposed solutions is something each of us can, and should, do for ourselves:

Individual lawyers must take more responsibility for their own legal-writing skills and must constantly seek to improve. Lawyers should read a book on writing or legal writing once a year, open themselves up to honest critique, acquire and consult the best sources on writing, and attend a continuing-legal-education course on legal writing.