A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage

By Bryan A. Garner

Book Overview

With double the length and coverage of the original, this new edition of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (DMLU) thoroughly marshals and analyzes modern legal vocabulary. Since the first edition, Bryan A. Garner has drawn on his unrivaled experience as a legal editor to refine his positions on legal usage and to add a wealth of new material. Here's how Garner's revision makes DMLU, Second Edition indispensable:
-- Updates every existing entry, making this a second edition in the fullest sense;
-- Adds hundreds of new entries;
-- Adds hundreds of new sections within existing entries;
-- Adds over 3,000 new illustrative quotations from judicial opinions and leading lawbooks by prominent legal commentators;
-- Reconsiders previously held positions, now saying, for example, that contractions are sometimes permissible in legal writing;
-- Fully elaborates ideas only mentioned in the first edition;
-- Takes into account numerous comments received from first edition users;
-- Expands and updates cross-references to guide readers quickly and easily.
Influential writers and editors rely on DMLU daily. Charles Alan Wright, for example, says, "I consult Garner regularly. He offers authoritative guidance on many matters of usage that are unique to legal writing....Garner is almost always pithy; he is often witty. Any lawyer, no matter how expert on words and language, is sure to learn from Garner's fine book." And the editors of Harvard Law Review have found it essential: "In a work worthy of comparison to Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Mr. Garner...sets forth an authoritative guide to American legal usage and style. All legal writers will find it an invaluable help; many law review editors will find it a source of delight. Don't confront your editor without it."
Features:
-- Functions both as a style guide and as a law dictionary
-- Guides writers to distinguish between true terms of law and mere jargon
-- Illustrates recommended forms of expression as well as common blunders with thousands of quotations and citations
-- Explains the origins of expressions lawyers regularly use, such as Know all men by these presents, or party of the first part
-- Records and evaluates more than 100 twentieth-century neologisms, from conclusory to farminor, from Mirandize to representee
-- Distinguishes American from British usage and refers to current practice among Australian, Canadian, and Scottish legal writers
-- Solves editorial problems by dealing with practical writing issues
-- Offers wit and erudition reminiscent of H.W. Fowler, author of the first so-called usage dictionary.
In short, in its Second Edition DMLU remains, as one reviewer hailed it in 1987, "truly unique in the literature of law." It is an essential resource for practicing lawyers, scholars of the law, and libraries of all sizes and types.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195077695
• ISBN13: 9780195077698
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 984 Pages
• Weight: 4.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 2.0" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

The Best

This is, by far, the single best resource on legal usage one can buy. I never cease to be amazed at how often I pull this book off of my shelf to find it giving me a clear and accurate answer to a usage question. I purchased this book several years ago after attending one of Garner's legal writing seminars. That seminar and this book have dramatically improved my legal writing skills. Those two tools positively influence my writing every single day. If you follow Garner's advice and guidance, you will eliminate deadening and condescending legalese from your legal writing and replace it with clear and concise prose. My clients appreciate receiving contracts that are actually readable and my contracts are less frequently subject to alternative interpretations because ambiguities are largely eliminated. As a lawyer or paralegal, do yourself a favor and buy this book. Better yet, buy this book and take Garner's Advanced Legal Drafting seminar. You won't regret it.

Can't Live Without It

As an editor of legal newsletters, I do not know what I would do without this absolutely necessary tool of the trade. Not only do I, a non-attorney, find it indispensible, but my colleagues who are members of the Bar are constantly borrowing my copy "just to check." And whatever they, or I, am checking--it's in there.Garner has a way of condensing solid and often very intricate information into a few paragraphs so succinct, and so informative, that anyone can understand. When one is rushing against a deadline, editing for and about attorneys and the law, reaching for Garner often makes the difference.I would give up my dictionary before I would part with this book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Garner has earned his place in the annals of legal writing and editing, and I hold him--and this book--in the highest esteem.

An essential companion

A J.D., admission to the bar, and this book should be the three requirements for any individual to practice law. The title, "A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage," is absolutely appropriate in that this book does not merely serve as an alternative to Black's to find the definition of a word or phrase. Rather, the book's emphasis is on appropriate usage. It is an enjoyable enough read that one might end up reading it from cover to cover if one isn't careful. I recommend it highly.

The indispensable authority.

If you have a question about a legal word or about legal writing, look it up here. You'll find the answer, and you're also likely to find a lively and intelligent discussion on the point. But the best thing about DMLU2 is that it's correct. So use it for back-up when you need to be right. Every lawyer should have it.

A reference that every lawyer should own -- and use.

Garner should be carried shoulder-high for this work. Much expanded beyond the first edition, it provides intelligent, informed guidance on both individual terms and general topics. What does it really mean to "beg the question"? Is "struck" preferable to "stricken"? What's the plural of "cestui que trust"? Garner does not simply give thumbs up or down; he explains the pros and cons of various usages, with an outlook that is literate and, above all, practical. Time after time I find that he has anticipated my questions and has answered them with just the right level of detail.