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Signposts and Roadmaps

Signposts and Roadmaps. Creating framework and structure in your legal writing. Part 25b of the Legal Methods Lecture Series By Clare Coleman. Writing for your audience. RULE: Readers will understand information best if it’s presented in an explicit framework

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Signposts and Roadmaps

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  1. Signposts and Roadmaps Creating framework and structure in your legal writing. Part 25b of the Legal Methods Lecture Series By Clare Coleman

  2. Writing for your audience RULE: Readers will understand information best if it’s presented in an explicit framework → Use headings, roadmaps, and sub-headings to orient your reader within the document. → Use signpost to orient your reader in a paragraph.

  3. Headings and Sub-Headings • Use headings and sub-headings to help orient your reader within a document. • Put content in your headings and sub-headings. • Specific enough to show what is in the section • General enough to capture the entire section. X: Whether the court will admit circumstantial evidence to identify the assailant in a civil battery claim. Better: The Court Will Admit Circumstantial Evidence of Identity.

  4. Roadmaps Roadmaps are paragraphs that give readers an overview of the issues that will be addressed in the legal memo. For example: Self-dealing triggers an analysis of the transaction per 8 Del. C. § 144. HMG/Courtland, 749 A.2d at 114. This statute is implicated whenever a Delaware corporation and one of its directors or officers, or an organization in which the corporation’s director or officer has a financial interest, engages in a “contract or transaction.” 8 Del. C. § 144(a). Section 144 provides that the transaction will not be “void or voidable solely” because of its self-dealing aspect, provided that the transaction is ratified by a majority of disinterested directors or shareholders. Id. If the transaction is ratified after a disclosure of material facts, the self-dealing transaction is brought within “the protection of the business judgment rule.” Cede & Co. v. Technicolor, Inc., 634 A.2d 345, n. 34 (Del. 1993). However, in the absence of a material disclosure, the transaction can only be rendered non-voidable if it is “fair.” 8 Del. C. § 144(a)(3); seealsoHMG/Courtland, 749 A.2d at 114; Cede, 634 A.2d at 365.

  5. Signposts Signpost words, phrases, and sentences give structure within a paragraph. • EX: There are four exceptions to the Statute of Frauds ... First, ... Second, ... • EX: The Court rejected petitioner’s argument for three reasons …. First, ... Second, … • EX: The court first held … and thus dismissed … then, however, the court held …

  6. Sources • Terri LeClercq, Guide to Legal Writing Style • Stephen V. Armstrong & Timothy P. Terrell, Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing & Editing (2d ed.) • Anne Enquist and Laurel Currie Oates, Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for the Legal Writer (2d ed.) • Richard K. Neumann, Jr. and Sheila Simon, Legal Writing.

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