Pleasing the Court: Writing Ethical and Effective Briefs

Judith D. Fischer, 1789

Abstract

This book examines professionalism in legal writing by analyzing more than two hundred examples of judges’ reactions to lawyers’ errors. The errors range from serious ethical breaches, like misrepresenting the law or the facts, plagiarism, and lack of civility, to matters of form like wordiness, lack of clarity, and grammatical and citation errors. The erring attorneys incurred consequences ranging from disbarment to strong verbal rebukes. This book promotes high standards in brief writing and demonstrates that the U.S. legal system includes restraints on incompetent lawyering and the filing of frivolous claims.