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Writing Numbers in a Legal Document

Spelling out the numbers on a check is still quite common. Do you do that? I do, but not because I consider it an anti-fraud measure: it`s just the way I was taught to write cheques, and I`ve never changed it. Add a space between the numbers and the abbreviation. For example, 9:00 looks crushed. Avoid using numbers for noon or midnight, as few readers will correctly guess that it is 12:00 and 12:00. If possible, avoid mixing fractions and decimals or numbers and words in the same document. Incorrect: On eBay, a collectible can cost anywhere from $5 million to five million dollars. Even better: On eBay, a collectible can cost between $5 million and $5 million. Going back to my heavy construction, your suggestion “[this] was only done for important documents” becomes idiomatic and obscures the water even more (what is a “single important document?”), while another alternative, “[this] was only done for important documents”, changes the meaning. The Associated Press or AP Stylebook, used by American journalists and public relations professionals, is the English grammar guide against which all short story writing is measured. While regular Joes may not have heard of the Stylebook AP – let alone open a problem when drafting a contract – it does contain a number of suggestions for writing issues that can be useful in this context. Here are the important rules: write down fractions that don`t follow integers (for example, “use three-quarters of a bag of chocolate chips”). Posted on July 30, 2021 by thebettereditor.

Legal drafting can be dry; It can be annoying. At worst, it can be downright horrific: not just exaggerated and tortured. Not many things in professional writing really make me angry, but this is one of them.* Some **/must/**numbers be written – especially financial numbers, where a slipped decimal can have big consequences.* If a transaction has multiple digits, gather them into a single table and verify that they have all passed. In order to avoid errors, it is recommended that someone on the team take responsibility for profitability and provide the author with subsequent overviews of the proposed or agreed amounts. If the numbers are likely to change, or if they are not for everyone`s eyes, keep them out of the initial drafts. Your law firm may have a specific rule for writing numbers, and in this case, you should follow the examples provided to you. However, if you are creating a legal document and do not have a template, use the default rule to write numbers and cut numbers that are part of a larger amount. For example, $50,323.75 should be written as “fifty thousand, three hundred and twenty-three dollars and 75/100 cents.” Capitalization of letters and hyphenation of words for 23. In this example, you insert the word cent and use numbers for the dollar portion. It is included here, along with most of the credentials removed. It is less a strictly legal document than a government document, but the idea is exactly the same: someone felt the need to state the large numbers used to describe a long series of measures of property boundaries, and the result is anathema. 5) Use commas to separate grouped thousands, and use periods to separate round numbers from decimals (or vice versa).

In any letter, it is boring to spell large numbers instead of using numbers. It`s worse in legal drafting. To appear well on the page in the first place, extra effort is required, and then additional checking. The probability of error increases with each step. Moreover, from the reader`s point of view, this approach makes it difficult to read a document. If only a small number of applications are affected, this may not cause too many problems. But the more something like this is done, the more problems it can cause. One of the bad things I rarely have to go through in legal writing is the completely unnecessary notation of numbers.

Not many things about professional writing really make me angry, but this is one of them. so that writing, including writing numbers, was unusual and *only* done for important documents; *I would reverse these two words to put the diminutive “only” immediately before what it is supposed to reduce. Better yet, consider “made only for important documents.” See Gregg, 1072.* To indicate whether a time refers to morning or afternoon, Chicago suggests using the abbreviations “a.m.” and “p.m.” (and requires this spelling). (not AM, am, PM, pm). Fortunately, I note that the Oregon courts agree with me. It may sometimes be desirable to write round numbers up to twenty if this is to be defended for consistency. (All these numbers have a unique notation, which is not the result of combining two written numbers.) .

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