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Professional Legal Writing Declaring Your Independence, Patrick R. Hugg

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article proposes two controversial assertions about the writing of many lawyers and judges today and offers a central theme for improving that writing. These bold propositions are offered in an effort to awaken and perhaps inspire the legions of overworked, harried legal scriveners inhabiting our legal community to adopt a new methodology of writing. Too many legal writers today are forced by the various (nefarious) circumstances of their work to crank out reams of hastily conceived and poorly edited text. The time has arrived for us to admit to this unacceptable state of affairs and to declare independence from …