LEGAL

RESEARCH AND
WRITING
INTRODUCTION AND SIMPLICITY
Presented by: Group 1
 OUTLINE

CHAPTER 1: CHAPTER 2:
INTRODUCTION SIMPLICITY

LEGAL WRITING (DEFINITION AND

TYPES)
ELEMENTS OF LEGAL WRITING
TWO BROAD CATEGORIES OF LEGAL
WRITING RULES
DEFINITION OF TERMS SUMMARY AND WRITING TIPS
 OBJECTIVE:
BE ABLE TO DEFINE LEGAL WRITING, ITS
TYPES AND CATEGORIES. BE ABLE TO
NAME EXAMPLES WITHIN EACH
CATEGORY.
 LEGAL
WRITING
kind of writing that lawyers, law professors,
judges and other workers in the field of law
use to express legal rights, obligations, and
opinions. It is generally of three types and
falls under two broad categories.
TYPES OF
LEGAL
WRITING
 TYPES OF LEGAL
WRITING:

INFORMATIVE PERSUASIVE FUNCTIONAL

conveys information aims to convince written for a specific use
on an issue the reader to or result in law.
some specific format,
involving the law or accept a certain
ceremony, or legal
a person's legal viewpoint. requirement may be
right. present in this type of
does not take sides. writing.
its goal is objective it is enough to be
accurate and complete,
communication.
yet understandable.
Two Broad
Categories
of Legal
Writing
LEGAL ANALYSIS
1. Predictive Analysis - a predictive
document belongs to the
informative type of legal writing and
deals with legal question in three
ways:
a. Analysis
b. Prediction
c. Recommmendation
LEGAL ANALYSIS
2. Persuasive Analysis - a persuasive
document attempts to persuade a
judge, arbiter or any other deciding
authority to decide the case in favor of
the writer's client.
 LEGAL
DRAFTING
This is the functional type of legal writing.
Here, the writer creates a legally binding
document, or uses an already available
template found in Legal Forms
handbooks.

It requires no legal authority.

DEFINITION
OF TERMS
MEMORANDUM
"to be remembered"
It is a paper that explains and
summarizes specific points of law
for a judge, for another attorney, or
for a client.
PLEADING
This is a formal presentation of
claims and defenses by parties to a
lawsuit.
These are specific papers by which
parties to a lawsuit present their
allegations in proper form.
MOTION
A written or oral application made
to a court or judge to obtain a ruling
or order directing that some act be
done in favor of the applicant.
The applicant is known as the
moving party, or movant.
 BRIEF
A written document that an attorney draws up for a party in a lawsuit or by
a party himself or herself appearing pro se that concisely states the
following:
a. issues of a lawsuit;
b. facts that bring the parties to court;
c. relevant laws that can affect the subject of the dispute; and
d. arguments that explain how the law applies to the particular facts
so that the case will be decided in the party's favor.
APPELLATE BRIEF
It is a writing that must be filed with an appellate court so
that the court may evaluate whether the decision of the
lower court should be reversed because of some error or
impropriety that occurred during the trial.

ELEMENTS:
statement of the issues presented for review;
summary of how pertinent laws affect the facts; and
statement of the relief being requested.
 ELEMENTS OF
LEGAL WRITING
SIMPLICITY
Simplicity in writing means to write plainly
and simply. To observe the rules on
“economy of expression,” each sentence
must say what the writer means and means
what the writer wants to say.
According to William Zinsser in his tips on
writing well, “clutter is a disease in writing.”
We are a society strangling in unnecessary
words, circular constructions, pompous frills
and meaningless jargon.
USE SHORT SENTENCES
“The herein plaintiff is willing and ready to give a
bond pursuant to the Rules of Court executed in favor of
the defendant in the instant case in an amount double the
valuation of the subject personal property above described,
and for the return of the same property if the return thereof
be adjudged, and for the payment to the same defendant
of such amount as he may recover from the plaintiff in the
herein action.”
USE SHORT SENTENCES
A good sentence typically contains only one main thought in less
than 25 words. By “typically” means that a sentence may have
more than one thought. It is however preferable to express only
one or at most two thoughts in a statement.

“The plaintiff is willing to give a bond double

the value of the property. He likewise
undertakes to return the property to the
defendant or pay him such amount if adjudged
to do so.”
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS
Simplicity and economy are good
qualities to have in legal writing. One
must therefore omit unnecessary
words.
RULES
AVOID WORDY
EXPRESSION
Simpler Construction is preferred than
using too many words to express an
idea
Example:
Wordy: The cars were brought for the purpose of starting a taxi business.

Concise: The cars were brought to start a taxi business.

Wordy: The brothers succeeded in baking two huge ice-cream cakes.

Concise: The brothers baked two huge ice-cream cakes

AVOID ELABORATING
THE OBVIOUS
This means do not expand or restate
the obvious. It bores the reader with
information he already has.
Example:
Wordy: Annie Bantug’s two sons, Kenneth and Julio play judo.

Concise: Annie Bantug’s sons, Kevin and Julio play judo.

Wordy: Needless to say, you are your mother’s favorite.

It goes without saying, you are your mother’s favorite.

Concise: You are your mother’s favorite.

GET TO THE POINT
Omit unnecessary preliminaries.

Example:
Wordy: We are very proud and happy to announce that our
office won the golf championship this year.

Concise: Our office won this year’s golf championship.

Wordy: There is no doubt that some people will disagree with

me, but in my opinion, I firmly believe that teachers should not
anymore run as board members of the PTA.

Concise: I believe that teachers should not run anymore as PTA

board members.
AVOID TAUTOLOGY
This means doing away with
unnecessary repetition of an idea in
different words.

Wordy: The guests stood up during the flag ceremony.

Concise: The guests stood during the flag ceremony.

Wordy: Please voice out your opinion.

Concise: Please voice your opinion.

ELIMINATE CERTAIN PHRASES
Wordy sentences may be made shorter by eliminating “there,”
“that,” “which,” “who is,” “as to,” “it” or “one.”
Example:
Wordy: There eight members of the faculty who attended the meeting.

Concise: Eight faculty members attended the meeting.

Wordy: This is a topic that interests me.

Concise: This topic interests me.

Wordy: The memorandum which I sent to you last week explained in

detail the background of the case.
ELIMINATE CERTAIN PHRASES
The phrase the fact that is often unnecessary.
ELIMINATE CERTAIN PHRASES
The phrase the fact that is often unnecessary.
Wordy phrases may be shortened by eliminating prepositional phrases:

Wordy: the leader of the unit

Direct: unit leader

Wordy: the treasurer of the homeowners association

Direct: the homeowners association treasurer

Wordy: the employee with innovative ideas

Direct: the innovative employee

ELIMINATE CERTAIN PHRASES
A phrase may be converted to a word or be eliminated altogether.
MINIMIZE THE USE OF CONNECTIVE
AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS
Some writers habitually string together two or more sentences using
connectives and relatives.

Connectives may be:

a) Coordinate conjunctions such as “and” and “but” which join
clauses of equal rank; or
b) Subordinate conjunctions such as “as”, “because,” “if,” “that,”
“though” which connect to the principal clause a clause of minor
rank.

Relative pronouns or “relatives” relate to an antecedent and

introduces a qualifying clause.
MINIMIZE THE USE OF CONNECTIVE
AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!