HAVE you ever wondered why lawyers often use unfamiliar words that however sound impressive and intellectual? Latin terms such as ipso facto, pro tanto, and as cautela are so common in their everyday vocabulary, thus rendering the ordinary layman clueless on what lawyers really mean.
In a seminar sponsored by the UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies (UST-CCWS) dubbed as “Writing and the Legal Profession” last August 28 at the St. Raymund’s building, Supreme Court senior deputy court administrator Zenaida Elepaño explained why lawyers tend to excessively write “lawyerisms.”
“We lawyers do not write in plain English. We use eight words to say what could be said in two. Seeking to become precise, we become redundant,” she said.
Elepaño used the book of Genesis as an example of how a Filipino lawyer would have written the Bible.
“In, at, around and/or close proximity to the beginning, God, in conjunction with His agents, assignees and successors-in-interest, created, devised, caused to be made, fashioned, formed, brought into being, conceived, invented and occasioned Heaven and Earth. And said Earth was voidable…,” Elepaño said.
The group of distinguished speakers also include, Atty. Nicolas Pichay, winner of the 1998 Centennial Literary Prize.
According to Pichay, law is a noble profession that speaks for the voiceless. However, he contradicted this by saying that lawyers were really the original kibitzers of the universe.
“Laway lamang ang puhunan (ng mga abogado),” he said.
As one of the event’s reactors, Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) Political Science coordinator Atty. Reynaldo Lopez stated reasons why lawyers commit these redundancies in legal writing.
“One reason is economic. The longer the sentence the greater the attorney’s fees. Another is political. They (lawyers) feel powerful if they use kilometric sentences. They feel more intelligent if other people don’t seem to understand what they are saying.”
Elepaño emphasized that while the worth of a lawyer is publicly measured by his oratorical prowess, most of a lawyer’s professional life is spent writing letters, pleadings, memoranda, ordinances, settlements, and agreements.
“Words, therefore, are the principal tools of the law profession—the written word, most especially,” she said.
Pichay added that a law student must use appealing words, not only for the hard logic and intellect, but also for the animus or the soul, which is an integral component in everyone.
“This is where literature and law converge,” he said, adding that both deal with life’s emotions and colors. As a poet writes literary pieces of life’s sentiments, a lawyer also conveys different stories of his client in court.
“As often as a poem can move us to swoon and kiss under a moonlight, or listening to a play can force us to reflect on societal injustice and move us to revolt, there is enough literature in the law which not only clarifies the obligations owed by people to one another; or describes a legal status or ordains a legal principle but also enough literature to constantly remind us that we (lawyers) are creatures of both logic and sympathy,” he said.
Elepaño stressed that in order for a lawyer to acquire style in writing, he must be a man of letters.
“A lawyer cannot be called learned if he confines his learning only to statutes and law books. For as the law grows and develops, it assumes a morphology determined and influenced by the changing and challenging realities of life. Therefore, the personal as well as professional success of the practicing lawyer and the judge demands ‘a largeness of spirit that reflects sensitivity to the wider world of which law is only a part’.”
In law school, there is a subject called Legal Writing. According to Lopez, the main purpose of this subject is to reclaim the lost art of precise and grammatical prose.
“The skill in legal writing is as important as the knowledge of the law. The writing process is intertwined with the thinking process. The two are inseparable,” Lopez said.
Other speakers in the seminar included Atty. Gerardo Banzon and Atty. Franklin Abadilla, both UST AB Literature alumni and now AB professors.
According to Abadilla, writing is just a matter of risk. One can never tell how writing would turn out.
“Writing is a craft and an art. It takes time to develop,” Abadilla pointed out. He also stated that as much as a lawyer would like to be creative in legal writing, he should also be factual and simple.
