Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Services Of A Legal Writing Coach

By Essie Osborn


When writing their presentations, lawyers are needed to do so in a specialized way. These writings need to fully express the analysis of the issue being tackled and have the capacity to convince other individuals on behalf of the client being represented. The writings therefore need to be clear and concise as well as in line with the rules of the profession. This is why you will find the services of a legal writing coach important.

In the legal field, there are two kinds of writings which are common to attorneys. The first kind includes those documents sent to fellow legal professionals in the office and letters addressed to the client. It is required of these writings to create a balance on the stated problem. Therefore, the background of the recipient has to be given some consideration as well as his/her interests.

These two documents mentioned above will actually be written in a different way because the office memoranda is being addressed to a legal professional and the letter to someone who may not be understanding the law. For instance, when writing to a fellow colleague in the office, he/she cannot go on defining basic law terms used in the document as it would be expected of if when addressing the client. Otherwise, he may only be annoying the other lawyer.

There is also the persuasive type of writing which includes documents such as negotiation letters and appellate briefs that are written on behalf of the client. The content of these documents need to be straight forward and not show some form of disrespect to the party being addressed as it would only lead to provocations. The document should also be clear without unnecessary information. Normally, documents presented to the court or administrative agencies are needed to be written according to the right style.

Other legal documents that are normally drafted by lawyers include wills and contracts. If they are drafted in the wrong manner, then the interests of the client may end up being injured. Even though there are guides for lawyers on how to write these documents, there is a unique application of the form in regards to the facts that are required.

Training coaches help lawyers in mastering the concept of legal writing. Once one has undergone the training, their documents can be better understood by experienced readers as they are able to get the right information from them as well as evaluate any cited authorities in the document. A lawyer can therefore learn about the format of citations in line with court rules on how they are supposed to be done.

The process will first start with the lawyer presenting his/her coach with the legal writings he/she has done before. The coach will then review the document while checking out for the style, structure and substance in it. The legal talent of the client is therefore natured once he/she gets to learn the techniques of self-editing.

Most coaches will ask their lawyer clients to submit their projects for review. They will then focus on the structure and substance of the argument as they edit it. Other will first do complete editing on a line-by-line basis. Thereafter, they review for structure, logic, tone, integrity, persuasiveness and balance. They then give their comments to the lawyers and work it out again with them so that they may learn the technique.




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