Being a law student, lawyer, or advocate, you know how vital writing skill is. A good writer is required for all writing, be it drafting a petition or an email or a letter. Legal writing is the way of legitimate communication between two minds, and the value of the communication depends, not only on the completion of the process but on the value of what is transferred. However, an advocate usually has no or less time to focus on this very element because of which an excellent legal writer is required to meet this end so that advocate can work on the core activity of the court appearance. It is crucial to a writer to draft the case well; an unstructured or unclear document might cost a client his case and so your reputation.
I, being a Law student, have no master in this subject. However, from my past experiences, I learnt that Legal writing has its own specific rules that need to be followed, and I have discussed a few of them in this article.
- Know your audience: while writing on a topic, keep in mind the audience you want to attract. Writing to an advocate is far different from writing to a client who knows little or nothing about the law. Place yourself in the audience and think about what they must be thinking or know what they want to know. Connecting with them is a crucial aspect of legal writing.
- Read challenging material: Well, if you want to be a great writer, you must be an avid reader. Read as much as you can. You want to read a novel or books? Go for it; make it a habit. However, being in the law profession, reading the judgement, case laws, law-journals etc. might help you in legal writing as well as increase your knowledge on the subject. Needless to say, while reading pay attention to the vocabulary and tone used.
- Write concisely and avoid unnecessary words: Try to give a lot of and precise information in a few words. Keep your writing simple and avoid long paragraphs. If you are aware of your audience, then you must be knowing their capacity to understand the terms. Avoid using complicated words and limit to its primary meaning. After all, the dictionary cannot be carried all the time. Moreover, replace the combination of words forming a sentence with a single word, if there is any. For example, words like "in all probability" can be replaced with "probability".
- Avoid passive voice: Where an active voice is subtler, using the passive voice conveys a loud and clear tone. For example, it is better to use "The petitioner received the papers" than "The Petitioner received the papers".
- Further reading and editing: Don't be in a hurry to submit your work instead of text and proofread it. You will surely notice some errors be it punctuation, spelling, grammatical error, sentence formation etc. every time you re-read it. Please do it again until you can't find mistakes anymore.
- Ask somebody to review it: Ask your senior or colleague to review it. Having an editor is a great way to catch those small mistakes which you didn’t notice yourself while proofreading.
- Practice: Pull up your socks, tie up your shoes and make your mind to practice regularly. As they say, practice makes a man perfect. Obeying all the points mentioned above will not makes you a good writer until you exercise these regularly.
CONCLUSION
Legal writing is essential to communicate to the client or even the judge. An attorney search for such paralegals who can work accurately under pressure with minimal supervision. Therefore, it is essential to have a good command over your writing skill. All you could do is to practice a lot. The more you write, the more you will improve your writing skill.
