Group I Presentation

for
Legal Writing
The Art of Legal Writing
- Cathy Salazar
The Process of Writing
-Manny Tulio
Legal Writing
- is a type of technical writing used by lawyers,
judges, legislators, and others in law to express
legal analysis and legal rights and duties.

Authority
Purpose
Legal Writing
Effects
Vocabulary
Art
Precedent
1. Language as a Professional Tool
words writing
interpreting
speaking
used words to cause a result
- court
- negotiation
- contract / will
-appellate brief
Art of Legal Writing
2. Practical Test of Legal Writing
a. Office Memoranda must provide everything
needed to advise a client or plan litigation
b. Motion Memoranda & Appellate Briefs
- must persuade judge to decide in clients favor
c. Legal Forms contracts, wills, opinions, statutes & regulations
- must create or define legal rights and obligations

Art of Legal Writing
must
withstand
the
attack

A. Reader in bad faith
1. Opposing attorney distort ambiguous phrase
2. Unsympathetic judge- misstatement to base adverse ruling
3. Use words for their own ends
B. Typical Reader
1. Need material for decision
2. Quick reading
3. Skeptical
- analysis
- inaccuracy
- mechanics



Characteristics of a Reader



Writing and Career

Lawyers write contracts, wills, trusts, pleadings,
motions, interrogations, affidavits, stipulations,
judicial opinions, orders, judgments,
opinion letters for client, statutes,
administrative regulations


- given :
sets of facts and legal issue
expected to find the law
write memo

Predictive Writing Persuasive Writing


foretell what will decision influence the court to
happen whether making make favorable decision
pleasant / unpleasant


Legal Writing



Predictive Writing
- foretell how the law will resolve a particular controversy
- asks to investigate the value of litigating
- whether a lawsuit is likely to succeed
-plan litigation strategies

Reasons for Prediction
1. Preservation for the future prediction used more than once
Used in deciding:
- drafting the complaint
- responding to motion to dismiss
- summary judgment
- negotiating with opposing counsel
- planning the trial
- pursuing an appeal

* all of which may stretch over a period of years








Persuasive Writing
- contains argument rather than prediction

-author argues for one approach to resolve the legal matter and
does not present a neutral analysis

-document needed to persuade the court to rule in that partys
favor









The Art Forms of Legal Writing


Predictive writing is done in office memoranda
confidential document


Persuasive writing appears in two kinds of documents :

1. Motion memoranda
public records/ court clerks file
2. Appellate briefs
The Process of Writing

Writing in Four Stages
Analyzing
Organizing
First Draft
Rewriting
Analyzing

Writing and Thinking process is inseparable
Writing is Thinking
Read statutes and pertinent cases.
-What are the issues
-How can the authorities be interpreted
-What interferences can be drawn from the facts.
-What will best persuade a court.

Organizing
Legal Writing is highly structured form of
expression.
Goal is to educate and convince reader that
your reasoning is correct.

****It is important to create a fluid outline****
First Draft

It is the least important part of legal writing.
It is crucial as an igniter to start your writing.
You cannot start Rewriting if you do not
have a first draft
Your First Draft should be less time consuming
than the Rewriting stage.
Rewriting

Plagiarism

Overcoming Writers block