COMES NOW, PLAINTIFF in the hereinabove case, by and through the undersigned counsel of record, and WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, files the aforementioned MOTION TO …

Yikes. Between the case caption, the title, and the procedural throat-clearing of the introductory paragraph, the readers of a legal motion usually spend the first-page thinking, “Get to the point!” Bryan Garner, editor-in-chief of Black’s Law Dictionary and longtime proponent of using plain English in legal writing, refers to this as “filibustering boilerplate” and “time-wasting guff.”[i] It’s true that many lawyers enjoy the pomp and circumstance of formal legal writing. But a good writer can make a pleading, motion, or brief both elegant and readable—and in the process, make it more persuasive.

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