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The court clerk who told me to stop writing 'i.e.' in my motions
I used to pack every filing with formal phrases thinking it made me sound sharp, but a clerk in Santa Ana pulled me aside after a hearing last month and said 'judges skim, they don't decode.' I rewrote everything in plain English and my last two motions got through without a single request for clarification, so maybe the legalese crowd is wrong.
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bettym891mo ago
That clerk gave you solid advice, but saying your motions got through without clarification proves plain English works is a bit of a stretch. Sometimes judges just have better days or the case itself is simpler, so two clean motions is a small sample. Still, you're onto something real about the skim factor, judges really do hate hunting for the point. Did the clerk give you any other tips on formatting or headers that helped?
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