These somewhat didactic — but on the whole reasonable — ‘order preparation guidelines’ were recently issued by Judge Robert Kressel of the United States District Court to solicitors responsible for preparing draft orders in bankruptcy proceedings. Given the ardency with which most lawyers defend their grammatical and syntactic convictions, the controversy sparked by the practice note is unsurprising.

The guidelines range from the infantile:

Guideline No 17 — Its and It’s
Please use the possessive noun “its” and the contraction “it’s” correctly.

…to the highly idiosyncratic:

Guideline No 3 — The Date
Please put a place for the date on the left side below the text. Do not put a month or year, simply put the word “Dated:” I use an electronic stamp to insert the date, so putting any part of the date is simply an inconvenience and an interference. The traditional line used to put the date is also unnecessary.

However, one does feel a certain sympathy for the clarity and precision so zealously sought by his Honour:

Guideline No 6 — Capitalization
Lawyers apparently love to capitalize words. Pleadings, including proposed orders, are commonly full of words that are capitalized, not quite randomly, but certainly with great abandon. Please limit the use of capitalization to proper names. For example, do not capitalize court, motion, movant, debtor, trustee, order, affidavit, stipulation, mortgage, lease or any of the other numerous words that are commonly capitalized.

Guideline No 7 — Use of articles

Lawyers apparently disfavor articles, both definite and indefinite. Use the articles “the,” “a,” and “an” as appropriate. Write the way you would speak. So, “the debtor,” not “debtor,” “the trustee,” not “trustee.”

(The lack of definite articles in American submissions and judgments has always been a pet peeve of mine; of course, given that many lawyers do drop the article in speech as well, this guideline may not prove as effective as hoped.)

And by far my favourite (notwithstanding that ‘And/Or’ is needlessly capitalised):

Guideline No 8 — And/Or

Never use “and/or.”

Is this what happens when a survivor of BigLaw ‘plain English’ moves to the bench?