Golden Gobbledygook Deadline Extended!

By popular demand, we've extended the deadline for submitting entries to the Second Annual Golden Gobbledygook Award to October 28th!

Yes, Golden Gobbledygook -- the coveted prize for the best example of bad legalese. You can post your entry right here at the blog (as a comment to this post), or just send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com).

The top three winners will get a boxed set (without the box) of the new paperback edition of my book The Party of the First Part, together with the Vocabula Review's new essay collection (a must for all language lovers): Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue. Our distinguished panel of judges will announce the winners here at the POFP blog!

The Second Annual Golden Gobbledygook Award!

Just what you've all been waiting for -- a Prize for the best example of bad legalese.

The term "gobbledygook" was coined by a Texas congressman, Henry Maverick. He meant for the word to evoke the sound that gobbling turkeys make. The word was meant as an indictment of confusing legalese and officialese.

But people have come to take legalese in stride; to which POFP says "Enough!

Send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com) -- and you can be the proud winner of the Golden Gobbledygook Award. The top three winners will get a boxed set (without the box) of the new paperback edition of my book The Party of the First Part, together with the Vocabula Review's new essay collection (a must for all language lovers): Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting, Writhing Tongue. Winners will be announced October 14th.

Looking for inspiration? Check out the Legalese Hall of Shame at POFP's website. (The two recent entries listed below will be considered for the prize... but the competition is wide open!).

New Entries in the Hall of Shame

Two new entries for the Legalese Hall of Shame in our related website.

• From attorney Erin Engels, a baffling sentence from a retirement agreement. The lawyer used 150 words to say "Retiree waives his right to sue the employer." But why just "waive" a right when you can "release, remit, remise, acquit and forever discharge " a right? It's hard work, but then this was a union job.
• From concerned citizen Howard Kline, an Ohio traffic ordinance that requires a GPS unit to navigate your way through the dangling modifiers.

In our never-ending quest to reform legal language, we've exposed these (and other) examples of bad legalese to public ridicule. Check them out at the Hall of Shame!

Full text Gobbledygook

By popular demand, I've now posted the full 38-page "Information" that won First Place in the Golden Gobbledygook Award. Go the Legalese Hall of Shame, and where you see the First Place Golden Gobbledygook entry, follow the link to the winning document!

And the Winners Are....

The winners of the first annual Golden Gobbledygook Award were announced last night at a special ceremony in Brooklyn, New York. Read the full story at the website.

The winners are:

• First Place: an "Information" filed in Oklahoma State Court (featuring a 1,028 word sentence!), submitted by Paul Sherman of Virginia.


• Second Place: a ghastly pre-nuptial agreement, submitted by a lawyer who wishes to remain anonymous.


• Third Place: a court pleading from New Jersey Superior Court, submitted by Cynthia Covie Leese, a retired Judge who, once upon a time, actually had to wade through that pleading. She was not persuaded!


• Dishonorable Mentions go to: Joel Wakefield; Ken Adams (of Adams Drafting); David Dickinson; and Mila Zain.

All of the Winning submissions, and the Dishonorable Mentions, are available at the Legalese Hall of Shame! Thanks to everyone who submitted entries to the contest!

Golden Gobbledygook -- Get Those Submissions In!

The deadline for the Golden Gobbledygook award is midnight tonight (September 14th). I might show a little leeway to well-intentioned entrants who are just a teensy bit late - but hurry up and submit already!

The Golden Gobbledygook Award recognizes the best example of bad legalese.

The entries submitted so far have been fabulous. I've seen gloriously opaque pleadings, truly impenetrable contract clauses, a nonsensical pre-nuptial agreement, and a bizarre animal safety statute, among many others. Each of them is ghastly in its own special way.

Call me a masochist, but I want to see more! So submit your favorite example of exquisitely bad legalese! Post it in a comment, or email adamjfreedman@yahoo.com The Golden Gobbledygook winner will be announced on September 20th!

Golden Gobbledygook Sweeps The Nation!

Thanks to the following blog-meisters for promoting the Golden Gobbledygook Award:

• Wayne Schiess's Legal Writing Blog
• Writing, Clear and Simple

The entries are starting to come in... there are some great examples of bad legalese, but at this point, the competition is wide open. So submit your favorite example of exquisitely bad legalese! Post it in a comment, or email adamjfreedman@yahoo.com

Update on The Golden Gobbledygook Award

Thanks to the following blogs that have mentioned The Golden Gobbledygook Award:

• Overlawyered


• The (new) legal writer


• California Personal Injury Blog


• California Debt Blog

As a reminder - we're looking for bad legalese. Exquisitely bad. Kind of like the Bulwer-Lytton Prize for the worst opening line of prose ("It was a dark and stormy night. . . . ").

To enter the competition, send me the best example of bad legalese you can find -- you can either post an entry here at the blog, or email me at adamjfreedman@yahoo.com.

The winning entry and runners-up will be posted to the Hall Of Shame on the POFP website -- and the person who submits the winning entry will get a signed copy of my new book, as well as the new audio book from star podcaster Grammar Girl, Anonymous Lawyer by Jeremy Blachman, and Lifting the Fog of Legalese by Joseph Kimble.

Good luck!

More Golden Gobbledygook Swag!

Great news: Joe Kimble, legal writing guru at Thomas Cooley Law School and plain language crusader, is donating several copies of his new book Lifting the Fog of Legalese as a prize. So in addition to the prizes listed in the post below, contest winners will also receive a copy of this book, which has won praise from Bryan Garner and others.

Submit your favorite bad legalese - either post it as a comment; or email POFP at adamjfreedman@yahoo.com.

Announcing the Golden Gobbledygook Award!

Just what you've all been waiting for -- a Prize for the best example of bad legalese.

The term "gobbledygook" was coined by a Texas congressman, Henry Maverick. He meant for the word to evoke the sound that gobbling turkeys make. The word was meant as an indictment of confusing legalese and officialese.

But people have come to take legalese in stride; to which POFP says "Enough!

Send the worst example of legalese you can lay your hands on to POFP (adamjfreedman@yahoo.com) -- and you can be the proud winner of the Golden Gobbledygook Award. The winner will get a boxed set (without the box) of my new book The Party of the First Part, together with Jeremy Blachman's Anonymous Lawyer, and Grammar Girl's new audiobook! The first two runners-up will also receive prizes. Entries will be accepted until September 14th. The winner will be announced on September 21st.

Looking for inspiration? Check out the Legalese Hall of Shame at POFP's website.