Your Guide to Drafting Practical and Precise Legal and Legislative Documents

 

Drafting complex legal and legislative documents can be a challenging process. From the organization of complex ideas to troublesome provisions to problems of logic, legal and legislative drafting is an onerous task. Mistakes can be costly – even catastrophic –for lawyers who face malpractice claims if drafting errors cost their clients money. Those charged with drafting legislative or legal documents need a solution to help them navigate through these challenges.

 

J. Paul Salembier, with over 20 years experience in legislative drafting, tackles this challenge in Legal and Legislative Drafting. This book goes far beyond simply discussing the principles; it provides readers with a step-by-step guide that helps them put those principles into action.

 

Features and Benefits

 

This timely resource helps legislative drafters and private sector lawyers write concise and more precise documents by arming them with:

 

• Practical advice – the book’s step-by-step approach leaves theory-driven publications far behind
• A wealth of examples – over 750 examples are employed to help illustrate how provisions evolve through the application of various drafting techniques
• Expert advice – helps drafters deal with other key parties in the process and increase their efficiency
• Invaluable tools – allow drafters to choose the right words in the appropriate context to convey the document’s intended meaning

Addressing the Key Concerns

 

Legal and Legislative Drafting is an indispensable resource for anyone involved in the drafting of legislation or complex legal documents. This accessible and solution-driven publication will assist readers by providing them with an understanding of:

 

• Ambiguity – illustrating common sources of syntactic and semantic problems and how to avoid them
• Problematic words, expressions and provisions – a complete assessment of the most challenging issues, from deeming provisions and formulas to notwithstanding clauses and Henry VIII clauses
• The need for precision – with so much riding on the written words of drafters, this book places a consistent emphasis on accuracy
• Logical pitfalls – a thorough examination of the types of logic problems drafters face, and how they are overcome
• Plain language techniques – highlighting their most useful applications and identifying their limitations
• Technological solutions – the most comprehensive review of computer-assisted drafting systems to date

A Must-Have For

 

• Legislative drafters who need to understand how to write clear and precise laws and learn new techniques to solve drafting problems
• Private sector lawyers who need to avoid potentially costly errors in complex documents such as commercial leases, shareholder agreements, prospectuses, mortgages, articles of incorporation and wills
• Government lawyers who need to understand the principles of good legislative drafting when creating complex documents such as memoranda of understanding, international treaties and land claims agreements
• Law students and professors who seek an accessible solution for legal writing courses