Clear, concise, and effective English for law students, bar examinees, and legal writers in organizations, private companies, and government offices (06): Free resources from the Michigan Bar Journal

Since 1984, the State Bar of Michigan has been advocating the use of Plain English among lawyers and judges. Thanks in part to the efforts of the Michigan Bar, the US now has the Plain Writing Act of 2010 and the Plain Language in Health Insurance Act. Posted below are links to some great articles from the MBJ:

• Tips for Better Writing in Law Reviews (and Other Journals)
• Judges on Effective Writing: The Importance of Plain Language
• The 20 Most Common Sentence-Level Faults Among Legal Writers
• Clearing Up Ambiguity from a Series Modifier
• Writing to Persuade Judges
• A Federal Judge Takes On Legalese
• The Best Test of a New Lawyer's Writing
• Ensnaring Perceptions on Communication—Underlying Obstacles to Lawyers' Writing Plainly
• Plain-English Drafting for the Age of Statutes
• Guiding Principles for Restyling the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Part 1) 
•  Guiding Principles for Restyling the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Part 2)
• Learning to Loathe Legalese
• A Message to Law Students: Effective Writing Takes a Lifelong Commitment
• Seeking the Highest Level of Writing Competence

Surf to the chronological index of MBJ columns on Plain English, from 2013 down to 1984.

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