A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage

This ideal companion to standard law dictionaries is the definitive guide to style and usage for the legal writer.

The ideal companion to standard legal references

In recent years, the need for clarity and precision in legal writing has been the subject of increasing attention. Until now, however, the unwieldy body of legal usage has remained uncollected and unscrutinized in any systematic way. The first comprehensive guide to style and usage for the legal writer, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage provides accessible, authoritative, and up-to-date information that will enable lawyers, judges, students, scholars, and those who work in other fields concerned with legal language—such as journalism, medicine, business, and finance—to make their legal writing as clear and precise as possible by resolving questions of phraseology, diction, grammar, and style. The entries, arranged alphabetically, discuss distinctions among variant forms of legal terms, expose common pitfalls in legal writing, and include brief essays on such special topics as metaphors, sexism, clichés, initialese, misspellings, preferred spellings, Latinisms, grammar, and distinctions of meaning. In addition, the entries are highlighted with illustrations from such sources as judicial opinions, statutes, briefs, and law review articles. While the focus of the dictionary is on American usage, this is augmented by numerous examples of British usage where appropriate; moreover, Garner discusses legal words not to be found in other dictionaries.
Modern Legal Usage is the ideal companion to standard law dictionaries and fills an important gap in the existing legal reference literature.

FEATURES of A DICTIONARY OF MODERN LEGAL USAGE

• offers comprehensive coverage and alphabetically arranged entries

• contains over 6,000 headwords

• provides a guide to pronunciation

• gives clear, concise definitions

• distinguishes between legal words that are closely related

• discusses topics of interest to legal writers

• lists preferred spellings

• includes brief essays on points of grammar

• uses numerous examples from legal documents

• incorporates abundant cross-references

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BRYAN A. GARNER is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Texas, Austin. Educated at the University of Texas at Austin and at Oxford University, he was an associate editor of Texas Law Review and clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Fifth Circuit Bar Association, the Southwestern Legal Foundation, and the American Judicature Society.

Library Journal

In this dictionary of American (and some British) legal usage, attorney Garner provides a ``charted course'' through legal language, advising on hundreds of usage problems in legal writing. Words, phrases, and a few topics are arranged alphabetically and defined or discussed with distinctions between similar terms carefully drawn. Problems in phraseology, diction, grammar, and style are dealt with and entries aptly illustrated from cases, statutes, etc. This volume supplements standard law dictionaries by adding to definitions and including terms not found. It is the most extensive resource available for legal word usage. Its strengths are depth in explanations, careful distinctions, and engaging style. A solid contribution to the improvement of legal writing, highly recommended for larger libraries and all libraries with law or law-related emphases. Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs.

About the Author:
Bryan A. Garner, a visiting professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law, is editor-in-chief of both the Oxford Law Dictionary and the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Elements of Legal Style.