Category Archives: Legal Writing

On the Importance of Punctuation

Courtesy of The Appellate Record:

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Good Legal Research/Writing Advice from Eugene Volokh

UCLA Professor Eugene Volokh recently provided some excellent advice that I highly advise following when citing to legal treatises that have been through multiple editions, and that have had different editors over the years: I ran across this passage (in a generally very well-done brief), which inadvertently highlights an issue that legal writers — students,…

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More Scaliapalooza

Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner gave an interview recently to the ABA Journal in which they discuss their new book, “Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges,” and advocacy, both written and oral. You can view the full transcript of the interview on the ABA Journal’s website via this link. Regardless of whether you…

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More Legal Writing Advice (sort of) from Judge Posner

Courtesy of Howard Bashman at How Appealing, the most recent issue of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Bar Association’s journal, “Circuit Rider” is available at this link. The issue contains a very interesting piece on legal writing in which the author urges brief writers (and others) to adopt what Judges Posner and Easterbrook –…

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Advice From Judge Posner On Legal Writing

In a recent opinion, Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner, who some describe as perhaps the greatest living appellate judge (a claim with which I would not necessarily disagree), offered some useful advice on the subject of brief writing. Specifically, he addressed the dense legalese that littered the briefs that had been submitted in a complex…

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