Lingua lex
Posted on
December 28, 2007 by
Gideon
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In the past week I have had the pleasure of writing “heretofore” and “therefrom” three times, “hereinafter” four times, “wherefore” twice and “assuming, arguendo” five times. How about you?
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No, no, no, no, and no. I try to write in plain English. “Heretofore” is “before now”; “therefrom” is “from that / those”; “hereinafter” I replace with a parenthetical (for example, “The blawger known as Gideon (’Gideon’)”; “wherefore” is “so”; and “assuming, arguendo” is “assuming for the sake of argument”.
Oops. Missed a close paren after (’Gideon’)” and before the semicolon.
Not even in appellate briefs?
There’s a reason that crap is used–when drafting complicated agreements, the words often save time and are more precise. Once you get used to the crap, it actually makes sense.
At the beginning of pleadings I’ve taken to dropping the “Comes now” language (”Comes now the Defendant…”); it made little sense and just made less-mature people snicker.
I don’t think I’ve ever used that phrase. It seems very awkward.