Video Tips: Beta testing

Here's my first go at a video tip: Tips for Better English: using verbs instead of nouns

The tip deals with one of the main causes of dull writing - overuse of nouns where verbs would be clearer. Your comments are welcome! Go easy on me though - I am a beginner in this!

For more on the subject, you can see the original PDF tip on the same subject here:

Clarity in legal language

A friend recently referred me to the website of Clarity - thanks Jane! 


Clarity is an organisation whose mission it is to promote plain legal language.  


Although my first role as teacher of legal English is to help my learners with, well...language, as I review the written work of the lawyers I work with, I find it impossible to ignore the 'bigger' question of how effective their writing is. A large part of effectiveness is down to clarity.


Adding value as a teacher of legal language
A client's primary concern is usually to receive clear and helpful advice. While a lack of linguistic sophistication in such advice can undermine the credibility of the adviser, so too can an excess of embellishment. This is why, to feel confident that I am 'adding value', I have to teach my learners how to write plainly. 


Top-down, not bottom-up
When I started teaching writing skills, I began with work on accuracy - correcting errors at sentence level. It didn't take long, however, before I realised I had to take a 'top-down' approach. 


The success of a document ultimately depends more on how well it is structured than how sophisticated the language is. 


This two-part article published on the Clarity website by Christopher Balmford, entitled "Getting the Structure Right: Process, Paradigm and Persistence"  is an excellent discussion of the importance of structure with detailed analysis of poorly-structured texts.

Tips for Better English Blog - up and running

Our Tips for Better English steadily becoming more popular - we now have almost a thousand subscribers, of whom around 400 are regular readers. The purpose of the blog is to go into more depth than these 2-minute Tips can, and to answer the questions I am sometimes asked about a specific tip.

You can see the blog here and sign up for the Tips here (click on the pink box bottom right to create an email subscription request).

International Legal English Unit 12 Listening 1: supplementary task

The letter I've pasted below is part of my extension of the listening task, which regards the validity of a promissory note. 


The recording fades out with the client, Mr Carter, saying, "...we need to talk about whether I can get my money out of this whole mess..." This is where the exercise stops, but where the real discussion can begin - how to get the client out of the hole he is in. 

Learners with a legal background should be able to advise on how Mr Carter could go about recovering the $2500 owed to him (problems with recovering receivables are all too common in business).  

After they listened to the recording, I asked learners to discuss the options available to Mr Carter at this stage and then to prepare an email following-up the conversation. The letter below is my attempt at the task, which I handed out for comparison with what the learners came up with. Feel free to use it. Equally, any suggestions to improve/extend this would be welcome.  

Complete the letter using the expressions in the box

Based on	Since	This	This does not, however,	no such
The good news is that	our next step	This means that	under the original contract	such a letter
below	Additionally	as well as providing	With reference to	following

Dear Mr Carter,

________________ our telephone conversation yesterday, ________________  I summarise your legal position with respect to the promissory note we discussed. ________________, I set out the options available regarding the recovery of payment ________________ between you and Mr Charles.

The endorsed promissory note

As we discussed, to be valid and enforceable, the note endorsed to you by Mr Charles must fulfill six requirements. ________________ your description of the note, it fails to meet the ________________ two:

1.  the note must be unconditional: you stated that the note would be payable upon Mr Ellis receiving an inheritance, and 
2. the amount due must be described as either “payable on demand” or at a specified time: the note contains ________________ statement.

________________ the note fails to fulfill these requirements, unfortunately, it gives you no legal basis for enforcement. ________________ mean you have no chance of recovering the money Mr Charles owes you.  

Recovering payment under your contract with Mr Charles

________________ you still have grounds for recovering your original receivable. As the promissory note Mr Charles endorsed to you is not valid, it does not constitute ‘valuable consideration’. ________________ you are still entitled to payment under the contract.

Next steps

I suggest writing to Mr Charles, notifying him that as the promissory note is invalid, his debt to you remains outstanding. It is possible that ________________ will be sufficient to prompt Mr Charles to pay. If it proves not to be, ________________ will be to serve on him a demand for payment. ________________ will show him that you are serious about pursuing your claim, ________________ you with a basis for filing a claim against him if he refuses to pay. 

Please let me know if you wish me to draft a letter to Mr Charles. My fee for preparing the letter will be USD….. I should emphasize that the sooner you take action, the greater the chance of resolving the matter quickly and without the need to commence court proceedings.  

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,  

(c)2010 Andrew Nathan

Writing Skills for Lawyers - Warsaw, February 2010

Many non-native speaker lawyers think that having ‘fluent English’ is all that’s needed to work with international clients. Of course, fluency is vital, but without being trained in how to write in CLEAR  ENGLISH, even experienced lawyers have difficulty keeping their clients happy.

This course, designed especially for Polish lawyers, is for you if you advise - or plan to advise - English-speaking clients. The course covers:

• principles for writing well
• intercultural and commercial aspects of international legal work
• goal-setting; planning and reviewing advice
• useful structures for Polish lawyers
• common problems and solutions

Part 1	Introduction to Effective Writing Learn and practice the fundamentals of good writing	Monday 8th Feb 18:00 to 21.00
Part 2	Effective Writing in Practice Case studies; planning techniques; editing; Q&A	Monday 15th Feb 18:00 to 21.00
Part 3	Problems and Solutions in Legal Writing Workshop covering common problems faced by Polish lawyers with grammar and translation	Monday 1st Mar 18:00 to 21.00
Prices	Registration by 31 January: PLN 670     Registration by 5 February: PLN 790
How can I join? 1.   Pay the course fee to: 58 1240 6218 1111 0000 4616 6540 (PEKAO S.A.) „Lacrosse Language Consultancy Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością” Sp.K., ul. Krucza 16/22, 00-526 Warszawa In ‘tytuł’, state: your full name; “Legal writing” 2.   Send the confirmation of the transfer to andrew@lacrosse.pl. If you would like an invoice send the necessary information.

www.lacrosse.pl 

What does 'without prejudice' mean?

This came up in a lesson this week. I'm not a believer in reinventing the wheel, so here are some references:

• Where the term is used in correspondence attempting to settle a dispute before it gets to court:

http://bcfamilylawresource.blogspot.com/2009/09/whats-without-prejudice-and-whats-not.html

• Where the term is used when a court has dismissed a claim without reference to the merits, leaving the way open for the parties to litigate the claim again:

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Without+prejudice

• In drafting when "without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing" or "without prejudice to the foregoing" is used to make it clear (!) that the rule that follows does not affect a previous rule. I couldn't find a concise definition in this context, but a Google search of the phrase will throw up examples to help.

Top Legal Movies

I've recently been asked to recommend some films that focus on the law. In my search for an intelligent answer, I came across this top 25 list from the American Bar Association Journal.  

Don’t ignore these 25 honourable mentions (perhaps my UK English spelling is at odds with the subject of this post), which include Michael Clayton and A Time to Kill…