Top Mistakes to Avoid in Your Next Legal Writing Project

Even the best legal writers have that one word (or two) they always misuse. Which is it for you? It's probably not the they/they're/their debacle. Most of us have that one down. But for whatever reason, several others pop up all the time in briefs, motions, and other documents. No matter who wrote them.

The best way I've found to cut down on these is to set aside some time to review your writing and keep track of your common pitfalls—then remind yourself to check for them during your editing stage. It can be as simple as writing down a few of them on a post-it. You can easily start retraining your brain to use the wright words (see what I did there?) with a little bit of effort.

Here are some mishaps I see all the time from lawyers and law students alike.

Phrasal verbs trip many folks up. People forget that there's often a different form for words used as a verb instead of a noun or adjective.

Take “setup” and “login.” I see these misused all the time. When you're using them as a noun or adjective, these are a single word:+

Some words are spelled differently depending on whether you are using them as a verb or adjective. For example: “breath” is a noun. “I took a breath.” But when you’re using the verb form, it becomes “breathe.” “I need to breathe.”

There’s no easy way to remember all the different forms that words can take. The same issues pop up with plural forms, homophones, and other common mistakes. You just need to train yourself to spot them.

First, some background. You'll hear grammar police correcting folks for misusing words like utilize: "Don't you know utilize means to use something different from how it was intended?"

Many of these flux words are hiding in our writing. And I will leave it to you to decide when you're comfortable departing from the old and embracing a new, common usage. Just know that, if you're on the fence, your readers might be too. So it may be safer to go with the traditional meaning until it's obvious you're in the clear.0

How about some words that have firmly changed their usage and are safe to use now, even for purposes other than they were originally intended? Data and agenda. Both of these started out as plural count nouns. So before, you would need to say:

These days, it's all data. I've seen countless lawyers, judges, and other legal writers use it both ways.

Another example that is probably over the acceptable threshold: Verbal. Technically, this word means to put into language form, not oral. But we've probably all accepted the word as meaning oral or spoken by now.