Thursday, April 24, 2014

The Services Of A Legal Writing Coach

By Essie Osborn


Lawyers are always needed to write their presentations in a specialized way. Their writings need to bring out the full expression of their analysis of various problems or issues and be able to convince third parties when representing their clients. The main point is that the documents needs to be concise, clear and following the rules and regulations set by the legal profession. This is where a legal writing coach comes in.

There are two types of writing common to lawyers. The first one normally creates a balance on the legal issue at hand. It includes writing of documents such as inter-office memoranda and letters being addressed to clients. While addressing the recipients, the lawyer needs to make sure that he/she has taken into account the interests of the client as well as having considered his/her background.

When addressing the two parties mentioned above, the lawyer will do so in a different way. For example, with the client he needs to explain technical terms used in the document in order to avoid a state of confusion. This is, however, not the case with the other lawyer being addressed in the office. If he does so, then it will only be amounting to inefficiency and may even annoy him.

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.

Lawyers are also tasked with drafting contracts and wills. They, however, need to write them very keenly in order to ensure that the interests of the client are well presented. There is therefore a unique platform that they are supposed to follow, and this is why there are guides to help them in writing.

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.

If you therefore join a coaching program, you may have to submit your project for review. It is after this that the coach will check on the substance of the argument in it as he edits it. Other programs involve the coach editing the whole document first on a line-by-line formula while checking for grammar. They then go ahead and check the tone, logic, structure, tone, integrity, balance and persuasiveness before giving their comments.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment