Customer Reviews

The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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This is a wonderful reference work on legal style--comprehensive, authoritative, well organized, and genuinely readable. It covers an incredible range of topics: punctuation, page layout, typography, spelling, grammar, usage, and more. It makes specific stylistic recommendations for many different types of legal documents, including business correspondence, research memos, pleadings, appellate briefs, and judicial opinions, to name just a few. And it's useful for anybody who has anything to do with creating legal documents, from judges and senior lawyers, to raw associates and law students, to legal secretaries; it would even be helpful to pro se litigants (as other reviewers have noted). I really wish that Amazon provided a "look inside" that showed the table of contents - the book covers an amazing amount of ground.

It's too bad that practitioners used to obfuscatory legalese, or who needlessly produce ugly, poorly written, unreadable documents, won't ever buy, much less read, this book. There's a lot of lousy legal writing churned out every day--bad not just in the sense that a writing teacher or design and typography professional wouldn't like it, but bad in the sense of being hard to read and understand and therefore, in the end, unpersuasive. This book is an antidote.

I recommend all of Bryan Garner's books, but this is the one to start with--it's the most general, and the most broadly useful. (If you write briefs, as I do, the second one to get is The Winning Brief). Every once in a while I would quibble with one of the rules Garner espouses, but for every such rule this book must have ten others that have taught me that, much to my chagrin, I (and almost every other lawyer I know) have been doing something wrong, without realizing it, for many years. I wish I'd discovered Garner much earlier; he's really helped me improve my writing and the way my documents look. Law offices ought to make The Redbook standard issue. That's not going to happen, sad to say, but I can't think of a better, more useful book to give to new lawyers about to start their first legal jobs. Or to senior lawyers who recognize that they don't know everything there is to know about legal writing.

One downside to this book is that, because it is so comprehensive, it sometimes will seem a little too basic. If you're really a good legal writer you may want to start with one of Garner's more "advanced" books. But you'd be amazed at how many legal writers seem not to have learned what is taught in high school English classes. <g> And in any case, this book covers much important stuff that just isn't taught in law school, much less high school, and that most legal writers don't manage to pick up along the way.

Highly recommended.

As a grammarian and etymologist by avocation, my tastes are a bit weird. Maybe that's why I actually enjoyed reading this book casually. Each of Garner's books belongs on the bookshelf of any attorney who considers himself a professional. My pet peeve is the attorney who I know is writing to impress the reader with his writing skills as opposed to the attorney who is writing to persuade the reader as to a particular position. The former will not have Garner's books in his library.

Do you edit your documents based on vaguely-recalled rules from junior high? Do you turn to a colleague when you have a question about grammar, punctuation, usage, or style? Do you rely on old forms to prepare professional documents? Stop it. The answers are here; the source is the Redbook. It's the ultimate guide to writing correctly. Every lawyer should get it and use it.

THE REDBOOK is an excellent resource for beginning students of legal style. It's a concise manual for the multivariate points of English grammar, vocabulary, and document presentation. It covers nearly every major grammatical rule in concise form, loaded with tight and concise examples; discusses commonly misunderstood words and their usage (ala Mr. Garner's MODERN LEGAL USAGE); and provides a concise presentation of legal document type, purpose, and presentation. Overall--well done.

Unfortunately, no work is without its flaws. This text has a few typographical errors. For instance, one instructional note indicates that articles contained in periodicals should not be italicized, however the example provided is italicized! Additionally, one example which was supposed to contain the word "not" was incorrectly typed as "note." Though these are not major errors, they undercut the author's lexicographic philosophy of clarity, due care, and empathy for the reader; such errors force the reader to invariably double-take--and in a grammar style book! Even so, these errors are not the norm in this work.

I greatly enjoy studying this text and I would encourage any one to purchase it if they are either 1) beginning legal style training or 2) learning English grammar in a legal-business professional environment.

May God bless you in your diligent studies of the written and spoken English word!

I purchased this book after hearing several faculty members at my law school sing its praises, and reading rave reviews here on Amazon. When the book came, I was disappointed.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the book. It's a good book. It has a lot of great information. But, if you write well already, if you had a good legal writing course, or if your written material scored well in moot court, this book is just going to collect dust on your shelf. I know plenty of lawyers who could really benefit from an afternoon with this book, but I know plenty of lawyers who could have written it, too. If you feel your legal writing could use some work, by all means, purchase this book; if you're confident in your legal writing, and you're just looking for that little boost, you probably won't find it here.

By way of explanation, here are chapters in this book:
1) Punctuation. This chapter covers the use of common punctuation marks, such as commas, semicolons, and quotation marks, as well as lesser-used marks like the em dash, slashes, and bullets.
2) Capitalization. 'Nuff said.
3) Italics, Boldface, and Underlining.
4) Document Design. Arguably one of the more valuable chapters in this book; it covers the use of white space, margins, headers, headings, etc. Things that get very little attention unless they begin to interfere with the flow of the document.
5) Numbers.
6) Typographic Symbols. E.g., the section symbol, the paragraph symbol, the degree symbol, etc.
7) Spelling. While I sincerely believe that spelling is becoming a lost art that desperately needs revival, I'm not sure that a book (at least, any book other than the dictionary) is the appropriate avenue for doing so.
8) Citation. Or, you know, just spin through that other book named after a primary color.
9) Footnotes.
10) Grammar. Grammar _has_ taken a back seat in modern-day primary and secondary school curriculum, but again, I'm not sure that this book is the best way to fix that problem.
11) Stuffy Words and Legalese. If you didn't learn this stuff in your legal writing class, you need to learn it somewhere, so I guess I can't complain about it being here.
12) Troublesome Words. No joke, this book has a chapter on homonyms, idioms, etc. This also makes a passable attempt at replacing your legal dictionary, but I wouldn't toss ol' Black just yet.
13) Editing and Proofreading. This chapter is better than it sounds, but the important takeaway from this chapter is just to ask yourself what you're trying to say, and why you're saying it in any particular manner.
14) Research Memos. Now we're getting to the good stuff. From here on out, it gives two model documents for each of the chapters. Depending on your legal writing class, this stuff can be invaluable, or can be a complete review.
15) Opinion Letters.
16) Demand Letters.
17) Pleadings. Be sure to be aware that your jurisdiction or judge might require a different format than what's in this book.
18) Motions.
19) Appellate Briefs. I've gotta say, I hope you're not entering appellate practice with just this book to guide you, but if you are, it's definitely better than nothing.
20) Contracts. Ignore the examples, focus on the tips for formatting and style. Write your own contract and tailor it to your practice area.

I remember getting an earlier rendition of this book when I was in grade school, and now while in law school, it still comes in handy. If you are in any class or position where you need to write letters, compositions or just about anything else, you need this book. It will tell you when to use what word, when not to use what word, and is easy to use. Can't beat it!

The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style is an invaluable resource for the Pro Se litigant. Many Pro Se litigants are not as fortunate as I have been. I have working relationships with several well-respected attorneys who allow me to borrow their templates and make my own from theirs. The attorneys actively practice in the area and are known for writing documents that win cases.

Most litigants are forced to resort to grabbing another attorney's brief off the internet and format theirs in a similar manner. But this can be problematic. After all, how do you know that the attorney you grabbed the brief from is doing it correctly? You dont -- until you get into court and the judge and the opposing counsel both give you 'the look' which inaudibly says "What the heck is this piece of garbage and why is it in my courtroom?".

Its often not just about what you say, but rather how you lay it out on paper. Presentation is very often just as important as what you actually say. That's why style guides like The Redbook are so important.

A must have for the legal writer. The Red Book picks up where the Blue Book leaves off. Very useful, practical, easy to find information. Keep this beside you when you need a quick answer. Well worth the purchase.

This book is a must-have for any attorney or law student's collection. I have used it to settle many debates among colleagues :)

The Redbook is a great have-by-your-side manual for legal or other writing.