legal writing
Contracts and motions
Legal writing is the formal prose style used in legal documents—contracts, briefs, statutes, judicial opinions.
It tends toward precision over readability, with long sentences, technical terms, and careful qualification of every statement.
Her legal writing improved after clerking for a federal judge.
The term sometimes carries a note of criticism, implying dense or impenetrable prose.
- contractsEnforceable written agreements
- terms and conditionsContractual requirements and rules
- case lawJudge-made legal doctrine
- concisenessQuality of being brief
- clarityState of being understandable
whereas · pleadings · civil procedure · court filings · herein · precision · citation · legalese · style guides · constitutional law · due process · plain English · organization · headnotes · footnotes · active voice · annotations · affidavits
- legal skillsopening statement, closing argument, oral argument, cross-examination, voir dire
- legal studieslaw journals, law reviews, critical race theory, law schools, law and ethics
- nonfictionbiography, autobiography, biographies, history, memoir
- lawlaw, lawyer, lawyers, attorney, attorneys
- Freelance Writingcopywriting, ghostwriting, blogging, editing, proofreading
- law schoollaw school, law schools, law student, law students, law degree
legal writingpersonal letters
Individual written communications
chat messages · diary entries · text messages · text messaging · slang
legal writingcreative writing
Original literary expression
fiction · poetry · personal essay · narrative fiction · journalistic writing
legal writingfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
plain language · lyrical prose · purple prose · clear communication · everyday language