Week 2 (January 8)

Why do lawyers write so that no one can understand them?  They say it

is because they need to be precise, and that their language has been

honed by centuries of litigation.  But this is baloney.  The real

reason is that, although they are paid for their skill with words,

most lawyers are dull and clumsy writers who have not broken the bad

habits they learnt as students.

                                   --from Clarity, a British group


Cur scribunt iurisconsulti ut nemo intellegere possit?  Dicunt se

scribere subtiliter debere et linguam saeculis litigiosis

acutam esse.  Sed hae nugae sunt.  Quamquam mercedem arte verborum

adipiscantur, plurimi iurisconsulti qui consuetudines malas ludo doctas 

non reliquerunt exiliter ac inepte scribunt.