The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog asks in a post this morning, “Legal Writing: Is Shorter Really Better?“  Tongue in cheek, the writer answers, “Based on the briefs I regularly see in my own practice, many lawyers don’t seem to think so.” The tips for trimming verbose drafts are good. Better yet are the writer’s thoughts on why briefs become bloated in the first place.

A legal writing professor commenting on the post is reminded of how her 12-page appellate brief beat her opponent, whose brief went the maximum 35 pages:  “I knew as soon as I saw that he took an entire page just to identify the two parties that I was going to win.”

Thanks to Legal Writing Prof Blog for the link.

Technorati Tags: legal writing