3 Best Practice Tips for Legal Drafting
Tip 1: Use Plain English
The legal profession has often suffered a negative reputation for the use of ‘legalese’ or overly complex legal language. For many modern practitioners, using plain English is becoming increasingly important to convey a message clearly and without obscurity.
One of the main mottos of plain English drafting can be seen as ‘less is more’, featuring short, concise sentences.
Some easy tips for implementing plain English in your drafting are:
- Avoiding the use of double negatives, for example, instead of “the buyer must not prevent the seller from exercising its rights”, write “the buyer must allow the seller to exercise its rights”.
- Ensure paragraphs are short and only feature one topic.
- Itemise subtopics into subclauses to make documents easier to read.
- Avoid repetition of variables e.g. ten (10) business days – simply write 10 business days.
These plain English tips might seem straightforward, but keeping these principles in mind will improve the quality of your documents and eliminate ambiguity.
Tip 2: Use Standard Templates
It’s always tempting to reuse a document from a previous matter that ‘more or less’ fits the bill – irrespective of the different and unique requirements of your new matter. By using this method you’ll be forever reworking documents and running the risk of leaving unwanted old information in the new document.
Tip 3: Get an independent review of your document
This is the most standard – but possibly the most important piece of advice for improving the quality of your documents. How many times have you read, re-read, and read again a document only to have a colleague look over your shoulder and spot an unclosed bracket?
A key proofreading tip offered by Ros MacDonald and Denise McGill, authors of ‘Drafting’ in the LexisNexis Skills Series, is to avoid sending freshly drafting documents to clients or another party. They stress the importance of giving yourself time and distance to more reflect on your document in a more considered way.
As simple as it is, proofreading – either by a colleague or drafting tool, can be the difference between maintaining your quality reputation and a law suit.
*LexisNexis® 2014 Australian Drafting Research Survey