Banish Extraneous Latinisms
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “Etymology”
In the early days of the new American republic, Noah Webster argued strongly for a simplification of English spelling throughout the land. This would, he argued,
Legalese: With Chips or French Fries?
This is post 1 of 2 in the series “Etymology”
There are probably many lessons to be learned from the recent Presidential election, but one of them is surely the value of plain speaking. Yet American lawyers seem to love obfuscatory language,
Common Law Confusions
There are many legal terms that have different meanings in different contexts.
“Consideration” is an obvious example. In contract law, this word refers to money or money’s worth; in civil and criminal procedure, however, it denotes something that should be taken into account when reaching a decision.
NaNoWriMo: No SloMo
A friend is currently participating in NaNoWriMo, and has just emailed to tell me how she is getting on. I realized that lawyers can learn a lot from this competition.
For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo,
French Food for Thought
France has some of the most employee-friendly employment laws in the western world. Among the most significant is the 35-hour week, which means that hours worked above that number are considered overtime and paid accordingly. There is also an upper limit on the number of hours of overtime that most employees can be expected to work.
WordPress for Websites
As the creator of Webby Books and co-founder and webmaster for the Stetson Journal of Advocacy and the Law (the first online law review designed to be read online), I am often asked what tools or platform I recommend for a law practice looking to create or update its own website.
Give Footnote Formats the Boot
When I first attended secondary school, every pupil was given a book containing information about the school. The book had a blue cover. It was my first encounter with something that everyone called the Bluebook.
Some of this Bluebook was slightly useful,
Time to Lose the Empty Chair
The so-called “empty chair” defense represents a means for the defendant to deny responsibility for causing the victim’s harm by alleging that (some or all of) it was instead caused by someone else who is not a party to the litigation.
Two Misguided Letters
Everyone knows that the annual US News & World Report “league tables” that purport to rank American law schools are deeply flawed. US News, of course, likes to keep up the pretense of statistical validity by periodically assuring us that it doesn’t just stick a pin in a sheet of paper,
Evidence, Please!
There have been calls for reform of the law school curriculum ever since law schools were created. Since the Great Recession hit in the late noughties, those calls have grown to a clamor. Yet many of those calls share a feature that is quite extraordinary — and even more so because it is a feature that has been consistently overlooked or ignored.