Comments on: Clearly, this is Blatantly Obvious

By: How “Intense” is Your Appellate Panel? | The California Blog of Appeal

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:14:52 +0000

[...] of “intensifiers” — words like “clearly,” “obviously,” “blatant” and “very” — in appellate briefs and the outcome on appeal. From the [...]

By: Greg May

Greg May — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:33:28 +0000

Kimberly. If you were annoyed, a judge would be, too. Wayne Schiess wrote in a post a few years ago: "[S]how off your big vocabulary in your diary; in public, write so we can understand you quickly and easily."

By: Kimberly Amick

Kimberly Amick — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:03:53 +0000

I recently received a brief that used the word “facund.” It means eloquent, more or less, but the word sort of jumped off the page and I had to quit reading the brief to go look it up. Then I was just annoyed that the writer had used such an intrusive word (and not impressed).

By: karl

karl — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:25:59 +0000

I think a judge I worked for on the third circuit while in law school said it best, “the term clearly usually precedes the weakest portion of any argument in a brief.”