Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I'm asking: what are the most misused legal words?

What are the most commonly misused words in legal writing?

infer/imply?
affect/effect?
compliment/complement?
counsel/council?
discrete/discreet?

Tell me your pet peeves or the one you see the most.

posted by Wayne Schiess at 12:04 PM

8 Comments:

Blogger Ann said...

than/then

1:22 PM  
Blogger H. Dennis Kelly said...

When one of my students uses "council" rather than "counsel" I usually remark that you can't be one until you learn to spell it correctly.

2:05 PM  
Blogger Wayne Schiess said...

Dennis,

That's a good one. Cracked me up.

2:34 PM  
Blogger mister.thorne said...

What I see so often is 'which' in place of 'that.'

I find it in legislation as well as judicial opinions.

In the 8th grade, Mrs. Jones made us distinguish between the two. Didn't anyone else have her for English?

3:36 PM  
Blogger Bryan said...

Bring/Take
It seems like everyone uses bring fro both bring and take anymore.

8:09 PM  
Blogger Mackenzie said...

Not strictly legal, but it seems like nobody uses "comprise" correctly. I also second the sentiment on which/that.

8:35 AM  
Blogger mister.thorne said...

I just discovered another blog that's asking the same question:

http://orglegal.com/2678/im-asking-what-are-the-most-misused-legal-words/

Coincidence?

3:12 PM  
Blogger Wayne Schiess said...

Mister,

I found out that orglegal.com was simply posting an RSS feed of my blog directly onto its site. It was doing the same thing to several other blogs. I complained. The ISP seems to have suspended the account. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

7:38 PM  

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