Fluent Legalese When Practicing Law

Aaah, fluent legalese – something only lawyers can appreciate – and not all of them as many of you can relate:

“But I continue to find it amazing that so much of the written product of lawyers seems almost intentionally designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate. An ordinary human being would have just written ‘legal writing confuses more than it explains.’ But give that to a lawyer, and some wicked translation occurs. I can’t just say ‘intentionally’ so I add ‘almost’ for a little wiggle room. ‘Obfuscate’ and ‘illuminate’ have a nice cadence, and I like the way it sounds, so I’m going to stick with it even if my intended audience may not follow it. ‘Seems’ give me a little room to blame someone else for causing my perceptions. Voila! Translation completed from English to fluent legalese!”

Read: Fluent Legalese When Practicing Law at The National Law Review