What is POFP?

Why do lawyers refer to long documents as briefs and
18-year olds as infants? Why do they use so much Latin when so few of their
clients are Ancient Romans? Is it a conspiracy?


Party of the First Part has the answers! Check out the Website for the
Legalese Hall of Shame; a glossary of legal words linked to Adam Freedman's
columns; tips on writing legal documents in plain English; and more!



Sunday, June 17, 2007

Neologisms

Britain's Indepedent held a competition to coin new "collective nouns." A collective noun is a word like flock in the sense of "a flock of sheep," or brace in the sense of "a brace of pheasant,"

One of the winners was quibble, when used in the phrase a quibble of lawyers. According to the Independent:
A litigation of lawyers was popular and had the virtue of alliteration, but what are lawyers for if not to litigate? Ditto for brief. We felt quibble got to the heart of what people felt.

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