Customer Reviews

Legal Writing: Sense and Nonsense

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After his tremendous scholarly work "The Language of the Law," Mellinkoff wrote this gem. I really like it, and I wish I had read it 10 years ago. It's a book-length brief in favor of plain-English legal writing.

He takes strong positions on legal words and phrases that should be cut from legal writing, but he knows his stuff and backs up his assertions. He gives lots of practical advice for handling the challenges that come from trying to write clearly and simply. And he does it with a light and informal tone that is at once entertaining and persuasive.

An excellent book.

Despite its age, I like this book very much, and it is still available second-hand if out of print. Mellinkoff, who taught Legal Writing at the University of California, Los Angeles for many years, assembled this text as an outgrowth of his work with his students. As a result, it is organized in a humorous and simplifying manner, and makes the many miscellaneous aspects of this subject easy to grasp and recall. Professor Mellinkoff sets out his "Seven Rules" for better legal writing. Each is easy to understand and is followed by a complete outline of each rule's applications. One can easily improve one's legal writing by leaps and bounds by working through 'the rules.' This is a good American-based book for any intermediate or beginning legal English writer, regardless of their country of origin or practice. I also appreciated his pedagogical grounding, and his personability, in the mix. For example, page 86: "(b) Form contracts: The form disease that infects lawyers is discussed under Rule 5 ...; there's a lot of it going around." This appears under "Rule 4," which is a single word: "CLEAR." Very pleasurable for a useful and educational reference work.