Think about this question … think really, really hard and long!
What is your goal?
Impress the judge?
Confuse the opponent?
Or, win the case?
Everything we do in life has in one sense or another a particular goal. Some things we do are automatic, like breathing, yet there is always a goal.
In business, the goal is to provide a benefit to others that they will want to pay for.
In sports, the goal is to perform to the highest of our athletic ability.
In law, the goal is to achieve certain well defined benchmarks!
Here is where most lawyers and nearly all pro se people miss the boat … they get sidetracked!
Every word, spoken in the courtroom or written on paper filed with the clerk and served on the other side, must aim toward a specific goal.
Any words not aimed at the goal must go!
Most of what I’ve seen from pro se people (and quite a bit from the dozens of lawyers I had to deal with since 1986 when I first started as a licensed attorney) read more like a long-winded story.
Legal writing is NOT “story-telling”!
Every word has a purpose.
Any word that can do nothing substantial to achieve the goal (which is winning, by the way) must go.
Say what needs saying and stop!
Aim every word at your goal.
You don’t need a “novelist’s eye” or a “bartender’s ear”, like Jimmy Buffett.
You’re assembling the parts of a powerful engine.
Learn how at HowToWinInCourt
Jurgen Klopp is determined to remain Liverpool boss and “help sort it” after reiterating his opposition to the European Super League.