The Legal Reader
Adapted from Jean Mangan, et. al., Legal Writing Manual, 3d ed, CC BY-NC-SA 4.10 license.
A legal reader is a person who has received legal training. The most common type of legal reader we think of is a judge; other types of legal readers include attorneys, law professors, law students, and people who work with the law but who did not attend law school or paralegal school.
When a person reads legal writing, that person is usually looking for an answer to a legal problem or to try to evaluate if you have made your case (including whether your making your case makes a problem for them!). The writer’s focus, then, should be on providing a document that makes it as easy as possible for the reader to find what they are looking for. When the reader feels comfortable reading something, they are more likely to give credibility to the author and assume that what the author (you!) is saying is correct. Here are some tips:
Roadmap: Because the legal reader is looking for an answer, you must present information right away and make it easy for them to see where you are going. In fact, you should state the answer to the legal issue at the beginning and then use the rest of the document to support why your answer is correct. Legal writing is not a mystery novel and it is not stand-up comedy, so do not save the identity of the murderer or the punchline until the end of the document. A legal reader looks for a roadmap at the beginning of the document. By knowing how the information is going to be presented and in what order, the reader can better follow along. Sometimes, they will want to skip to a particular section, and the roadmap lets them know where to look. You should have strong topic sentences to introduce the ideas in each of your paragraphs and your sentences should flow easily from one to the next.
Organization and Accessibility: Genres vary, but generally, your document should be organized by using conventional legal writing structures, should employ transitions and connectors as you move from step to step, and should use headings and subheadings. Additionally, your language should be clear and accessible, even when discussing complex legal ideas.
Polish and Correctness: The level of polish in legal writing should be very high because you want the reader to concentrate on seeing the answer to the legal problem, not on fighting through your presentation of words and sentences. So you should not have patterns of major or minor grammar errors or typos.
Citations and Use of Authorities: If citations and use of legal authorities are required, you must be scrupulous and accurate.
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