This is not to say that legal jargon has no place in the profession; it certainly applies to many situations. But the criteria for using complex jargon should be based on the answer to the question: Who is the reader?
If the reader is another legal professional, then it makes sense to use some familiar jargon to explain things to someone who already speaks that language. Problems arise when legal people write letters and reports to non-legal people. Because these readers don't travel in legal circles or understand these verbal shortcuts, the message is lost on them.
Any time you write an internal memo about a case to another attorney or paralegal, feel free to use jargon, abbreviations, and short cuts that you know another legal professional will understand. This saves time for both of you and helps get the point across with a minimum of effort and paper.
However, any time you write something that goes outside the legal community-a letter, a report, a request for more information, a witness statement, etc.-you must avoid legal jargon whenever possible, especially when your audience may not understand your terminology.
Medical doctors, chiropractors, and scientific experts frequently make this mistake. Their reports are so filled with the terminology of their trades that the average attorney, insurance adjuster, hearing arbitrator, or judge will understand little of what is on the page. This inability to write for the reader irritates many people.
What follows is a way to improve the way you write by giving you some issues to think about before you pick up your pen or sit down in front of a typewriter or word processor. These suggestions will help you prepare your thoughts so you can write with less effort, more impact, and greater clarity. Take these tips and apply them to your legal writing projects: memos, memo briefs, case progress reports, client letters, representation letters, demand letters, settlement packages, etc.
Since you can't change the way the entire legal profession writes, see if you can improve the way you write for a start.
R.O.S.C.O.-A Model for Legal Writing Productivity
Sportswriter Red Smith once said, "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." This statement may accurately reflect the feelings of most legal professionals when it comes to putting words to paper.
Whether it's a one-page letter to an important client or a 50-page report to the senior partners in your firm, the process of business and legal writing often conjures up fear of failure feelings. This uneasiness can hover over the process of writing and interfere with your overall productivity. A critical client letter that needs to go out immediately may languish on the desk of a paralegal who doesn't know where or how to begin. Worse yet, if the person on the other end sees a jumbled, half-baked effort, what kind of impression does that convey about the paralegal writer or the law firm he or she supposedly represents?
Many people seem to think that good writing skills come from some kind of inherited talent, not from an actual process of skill- building. Nothing could be further from reality. True, good writers often seem blessed with a large and potent vocabulary and an ease of organization and expression, but these are acquired skills, just like those needed for interpreting legal matters, computer programming, accounting, or interviewing.
Faced with this assignment, what's the typical plan of attack? Usually, the person given this task gathers together a hodgepodge of material and sits down to work with no real idea of what to write in the beginning, middle, or end.
After a number of false starts, the writer may return a finished product that lacks clarity, power, or any semblance of organization. An important client letter may leave the office because of time dead lines or other case-related pressures, even if neither the paralegal nor the supervising attorney is fully satisfied with the work. Worse yet, the supervising attorney may not
know how to offer appropriate suggestions to correct the problem.
Couple this with a lukewarm or even negative response by the reader on the other end, and you've seen the bad writing loop come full circle.
So what's the solution? Is there a way to organize a large or small legal writing project before you begin? Can you write with more confidence and clarity and better organize your thoughts? The answer is an unqualified "yes." Most good writing begins by following a few rules of organization. Let's start by reviewing a writing productivity model called R.O.S.C.O.
Used as a planning tool before each significant writing task, the R.O.S.C.O. model can help fill in the blanks before you pick up a pen or sit down at the keyboard. You also can use it as a training guide for any fellow employee having difficulty getting started. Remember that as a paralegal, the goal of your writing is not to "inform" but to get some action from your reader.
Complete each element of the R.O.S.C.O. model, which stands for Reader, Outcome, Strategy, Content, and Organization, and you'll see a logical progression starting to build. Answer the following questions before you start your next important legal writing project.
Reader
Who is the reader? A new client? A current client? The head adjuster for an insurance company? The opposing counsel? A staff member in another department? A friend? An enemy? The court clerk? The hearing judge on an important case? Knowing exactly who will read your message takes much of the guesswork out of writing.
What are his or her interests in the case? What about biases? opinions? or beliefs? What do you know about this per son already? Do you have any pre-existing information or knowledge of your reader? Do you know his or her current position concerning the topic you’re covering? Do you know of any biases or opinions that might require a delicate touch?
With these issues in mind, you can attempt to change your reader's mind, agree with or confirm his or her position, or provide useful information to improve his or her understanding of the problem at hand.
Outcome
What do I want to accomplish by writing this? What is your ultimate goal? To continue an existing communication process? To start a new one? To relay some critical or timely information? To establish rapport? To settle a case? To express anger, neutrality, or excitement? Knowing what you want to accomplish before you start can take off much of the pressure.
What do I want the reader to do after reading this? What is the first thing you want him or her to do? Pick up the phone and call you? Settle the case? Lunge for his or her checkbook? Send it to another decision-maker? Act on it in the future? Refer you to an expert? Send you some more information?
Do I need to write anything at all? Is this piece of paper really necessary? Can you handle the matter with a phone call or a face-to-face meeting, or does it need documentation? Do you need to write something to protect you or your firm from potential malpractice problems later?
Make sure your message is strong enough to fight its way to the top of your reader's attention zone. Don't just add another piece to the vast paper shuffle.
Strategy
Of each of the R.O.S.C.O. elements, the Strategy aspect is probably the most flexible. You can go in an infinite number of directions to get your point across with clarity, impact, and style.
What overall approach should I use? Choose the best way to get your point across. Pick an approach that's the most feasible, cost- effective, and time-productive. Follow the old tongue-twisting advertising slogan: "Tell them what you're going to say, say what you're going to say, and tell them what you just said."
Which tone would work best? You have a wide range of options to choose from: hard, easy, friendly, legal, warm, cool, dramatic, subtle, bold, direct, or indirect. Choose the best one to get your message across in a notable manner.
How formal or informal shall I make it? It helps to know in advance if your reader is a friend, an acquaintance, an enemy, or a stranger. With this information, you can accurately guess how your reader will perceive you and your message. A friendly,
low-key approach might work best, or you may need to add some stem language to make your point.
Content
This next element of the R.O.S.C.O. model refers to the "meat-and- potatoes" of your message, i.e., what you plan to say and how you plan to say it.
What information do I need to convey? Give your reader enough information to stimulate some action on his or her part. Ex plain whatever is necessary to achieve your outcome. Help your reader learn more than he or she already knows. Gather the available
case material to include if it's necessary.
How much information will serve my objectives? Choose a logical midpoint between too much and too little. Decide if you need to provide additional data from the case file like reports, depositions, statements, photos, video, charts, graphs, maps, reports, or briefs.
How much detail do I need to include? Try to break each part of your message down into individual sections so as not to over whelm your reader with information. Decide between too much detail and not giving him or her enough to make an intelligent or immediate decision. Brevity is usually more effective than length.
Organization
Finally, the last element of the R.O.S.C.O. model deals with the physical presentation of your message-what the reader actually holds in his or her hands.
How should I organize the information? Carefully choose the physical layout of your written message. You may be able to cover it with a one-page letter or it may take five. You may need to include a number of attachments, additional information sent under separate cover, a spiral-bound report, deposition copies, a video tape, or even a stamped return envelope or a reply card. Make it easy for your reader to go from top to bottom and make an appropriate, timely reply.
What items should come first? Last? Give some careful thought to the flow of the piece. You might want to put the good news in front and the bad news at the end or buried in the middle. If it's a settlement letter, be sure to include all of the necessary information to help the reader make a decision and then ask for a response by a specific date. Decide if you can use a direct lead, which gives the reader your news or information right away, or an indirect lead, which delays the message until a bit later on.
How should I arrange the information to support my ideas? You may want to use "bullets," numbered points, or an outline format to highlight your main ideas. You might provide a brief over view at the opening, followed by a description of each point. If the reader will need to refer to other pages, choose a format-parentheses, footnotes, etc.-that's easy to read and use. Choose a format that encourages the reader to act after reviewing your information.
Each of the five factors that make up the R.O.S.C.O. model serves a distinct purpose. The five factors offer guidelines to help you get started. Once you know the answers to these questions, you can begin to write with more confidence. Instead of your thrashing around with only a vague idea of your ultimate goal, the R.O.S.C.O. model can get you going in the right direction. It's not a cure-all for every writing problem but, rather, a springboard you can use to begin your writing tasks. You probably won't need to use the model if you're just dashing off a quick note, memo, or fax, but you should definitely consider it for your next high-priority high-value letter, brief, or settlement offer. When you know your audience and what you want from them, as well as your strategy to reach that audience, the words will come with less exertion. And that is the key to effective legal writing, legal research, and case management-creating a quality product with a minimum of hardship and effort.