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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 12/08/2025

In "annals of legal chutzpah," murderer Leopold (of "& Loeb" fame) sued to stop a film à clef (COMPULSION, a fave) about his crime, saying the fictionalized aspects hurt him in the community. Ill. Sup. Ct.: you murdered a kid; there's no fiction about you that worsens your rep.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 07/08/2025

Fascinated to learn that, though not common, it remains possible to bring a common law petition of right as a remedy in contract against the King in situations not covered by the Crown Proceedings Act 1947. Franklin v Attorney General [1974] QB 185, 201, HC per Lawson J.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 19/04/2025

Looked this up out of curiosity and it's fascinating when states (here Ohio and Oregon) insist on terms no other state uses. What other examples are there of a state using a unique name for a common offense, procedure, or law?

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 17/04/2025

In keeping with the GPO style guide, the Supreme Court uses an en-dash (–) not a hyphen (-) in MS–13 (so it's not MS-13). It's an odd quirk of federal style

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 12/04/2025

If you want to really annoy a lawyer, just try citing bits from law reports like you would any other book chapter ;)

$Burger, Warren E. “Wisconsin v. Yoder.” \emph{United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court}, edited by Henry Putzel, Jr., vol. 406, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1973, pp. 207–236. \end{hangparas}$

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 29/03/2025

The official proclamation of Australia's dissolution is not befitting the great Commonwealth… so I re-typeset it! God save the King of Australia! Pathetic original below

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 16/03/2025

There's a lot of debate on the best list format for law. Some people like Roman (I,II, III or i, ii, iii), others alpha (a, b, c), others numeric (1, 2, 3). I, however, prefer the bra size method of listing, which I think is the clearest way to tabulate.

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Robert Sharp @robertsharp.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Flipping through Family Law textbook, an area that necessarily has a lot of anonymised case. But there are no less than 57 citations with the title ‘Re: A’. Petition to adopt the @legalstyle.co.uk suggestion of deploying full throated pseudonyms in www.legalstyle.co.uk/2022/12/styl...

legalstyle.co.uk

Styling family cases

Don't put the generic titles in the styling

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 13/03/2025

A few excerpts from one of my favourite essays (always a delight to return to), L. Sprague de Camp’s “Language for Time Travellers”

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Trite Law 🇬🇧 @tritelaw.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

'It is trite to say that merely preferring one party's case to that advanced by the other cannot, of itself, give rise to a sustainable claim of apparent bias.' In re Haberlin's Appl'n [2025] NIKB 13, ¶ 33, KBD per Humphreys J. www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NI...

bailii.org

Haberlin, Re Application for Judicial Review [2025] NIKB 13 (27 February 2025)

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The Green Bag @thegreenbag.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

A great judge, a true wordsmith, and an author any editor would enjoy working with.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 11/03/2025

I **ADORE** this little article from Green Bag by a federal judge explaining how he first coined a word and then worked to use it in an opinion so it could make it into Black's Law Dictionary greenbag.org/v13n2/v13n2_...

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Michael Froomkin @mfroomkin.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

'Every cased is a story'....but this one is unusually convoluted and odd.

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Scratched Tooth @keencritic.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Just the beginning of a tale longer and more twisted than Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Quite an arresting opening line: 'This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive.' www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

bailii.org

Ashimola & Anor v Samuel & Anor [2025] EWHC 502 (Ch) (10 March 2025)

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 04/03/2025

Quiz: name the case from the AI generated image!

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 23/02/2025

Someone accused of criminal contempt in the Delaware Court of Chancery has a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of *equity*. See, e.g., State v. Klein, 123 A.2d 740 (Del. Ch. 1956).

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 23/02/2025

Library catalogues should not use academic diacritics like this, meaningless and confusing and bad for typeface support, for public listings. Associate the canonical academic transliteration with a name conforming to more standard Cyrillic-English renderings…

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 21/02/2025

I recently finished Nabokov's Pnin, the first book of his that I've read, and, whilst I am very late to this party… wow, what an incredible writer. The awesome adjectives and alliteration alone are astounding!

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 21/02/2025

The trial of the attacker (just convicted) against Sir Salman Rushdie is a good illustration of the quirks of inchoate offences: attempted murder requires an intent to kill, yet murder doesn't. (This is basic stuff to lawyers but for non-legal followers…)

The assistant public defender Andrew Brautigan told the jury that prosecutors had not proved that Matar intended to kill Rushdie. The distinction is important for an attempted-murder conviction. The defendant has pleaded not guilty.

“You will agree something bad happened to Mr Rushdie, but you don’t know what Mr Matar’s conscious objective was,” Brautigan said. “The testimony you have heard doesn’t establish anything more than a chaotic noisy outburst that occurred that injured Mr Rushdie.”

Matar had attacked with him knives, not a gun or bomb, his attorneys have said previously. And in response to testimony that the injuries were life-threatening, they have noted that Rushdie’s heart and lungs were uninjured.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 19/02/2025

Legal academics v legal practice: an illustration

News
Law professor with 'profound sense of grievance' banned from courts
By Charlie Moloney18 February 2025

Save articlePlease Sign in to your account to use this feature
Alaw professor who 'grossly misused the procedures of the courts' in a campaign of meritless claims against the University of Warwick has been hit with an extended civil restraint order (ECRO) by a High Court judge.

Professor Theodora Kostakopoulou was employed by the university as professor of law from 2012. But in 2016, disciplinary proceedings were commenced against her, leading to her receiving a written warning.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 12/02/2025

Can someone please explain to me why on earth NextDNS allows this option to be turned off?

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 11/02/2025

This would be remarkably more convincing if the ABA hadn't supported the "Twenty-eighth amendment" pseudo claims. They destroyed their credibility, which is a shame, because convincing advocates for the law are needed

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 11/02/2025

2 things from the memo dismissing the case against Eric Adams: 1) oddly the Dep. AG cited the Hyde Amend't [crim. not abortion] by Pub.-L. yet it's 18 U.S.C. § 3006A note. The confusion of statutory notes strikes again 2) What on earth does Vickor Bout have to do with things?

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 10/02/2025

A helpful guide to avoiding a common spelling error thanks to confusion of the #severance tv show and the Prime Minister!

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Trite Law 🇬🇧 @tritelaw.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

'It is trite law to say that each case is fact specific and that a sentencing judge has a unique feel of any case.' R v Donnelly [2025] NICA 7, para 30 per Keegan LCJ. www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NI...

t.co

https://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NICA/2025/7.html

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 08/02/2025

I don't think I can keep watching the #severance show given that in the latest episode the same book is shown first printed in Garamond Premier Pro Caption (small optical size has distinct 'W') and then later in Times New Roman. Disgracefully poor attention to detail

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 07/02/2025

NEW PEERS ALERT! Including for former Downing Street chief Sue Gray. Meanwhile… how does one pronounce Auchenroch?

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 06/02/2025

I strongly endorse being so pedantic as to join in a concurrence save two footnotes

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 06/02/2025

I know this slam poetry style formatting of allegations is designed to streamline a reply (paragraph 164 is denied/admitted) but it makes complaints unreadable to anyone else.

. Gaiman persisted in his suggestions and grew more insistent.
58. Scarlett eventually agreed after Gaiman told her that he had to make a work call.
59. Upon information and belief, there was no work call.
60. Shortly after Scarlett began to bathe, Gaiman arrived unannounced.
61. And naked.
62. Gaiman got into the bathtub with Scarlett.
63. Without being invited to do so.
64. Scarlett was shocked and frightened by Gaiman’s behavior.
65. At that time Gaiman was 61 years old

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 04/02/2025

Lord Campbell was so enamoured of the index he [claimed to have] proposed a bill mandating an index in all books!

Campbell writes, 'So essential did I consider an Index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill to parliament to deprive an author who publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of copytight; and, moreover, to subject him, for his offence, to a pecuniary penalty? One wonders whether we should take Campbell entirely at his word. Hansard has no record of Campbell ever mentioning such a bill in parliament.
(If he did, and it has gone unrecorded, it was most likely in the context of the Copyright Bill introduced repeatedly by Thomas Taulford in the late 18305). But in fact Campbell's whole bold claim takes place in the context of an admission of guilt. The above quotation goes on: 'from difficulties started by my print-ers, my own books have hitherto been without an Index.' Were his bill to have come into being, Campbell, the shrewdest of legal minds, would have fallen foul of his own legislation. John Lord Campbell,

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 23/01/2025

I'm so mulish about such things that, if I were in prison and a pardon came with this kind of typo, I would send the pardon back with a request for revisions before agreeing to be released.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 15/01/2025

Pop quiz: what’s the only country (to my knowledge) with a constitutional imperative to promote the Sanskrit language? It’s not India. Hint: the constitution also requires the promotion of the Greek language (ancient or modern not specified).

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 15/01/2025

Please suggest—besides Polish/polish, are there other words which have capital-letter variant pronunciation in English? (Not a quiz—trying to think of capital-dependent heteronyms)

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 31/12/2024

NEW: I present, just in time to count down the year, the TOP 25 JUDICIAL SMACKDOWNS OF 2024. Sit back, grab some champagne, and enjoy the BRUTALITY from jurisdictions across the world! (link below) www.legalstyle.co.uk/2024/12/the-...

legalstyle.co.uk

The Top 25 Judicial Smackdowns of 2024

Brutality to end the Year!

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Louise S @louises.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Brilliant blog piece on fox law by @legalstyle.co.uk. www.legalstyle.co.uk/2024/12/happ...

legalstyle.co.uk

Happy Foxing Day!

A Vulpine Celebration!

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 22/12/2024

David Brooks shows his deep grasp of theology certainly not obtained by lazy googling for quotations by to fill copy by calling Simone Weil a ‘Jewish mystic’

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 22/12/2024

Certainly no one would argue this is a good year for the CofE, but marking on a curve, it’s fairly hard to it an annus horribilis given 155 had the Act of 1 & 2 Phil & Mar, c 8 (an Acte repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the see Apostolick of Rome)

The observer view on the Church of England: how does it recover after its annus horribilis?

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Rowan Hall @rowaninlondon.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

The Constitution Unit Blog published 57 posts in 2024 and, more importantly, Dave has been a wonderful colleague to work with (and has definitely made my job easier!) Catch some of our greatest hits 👇

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 19/12/2024

This is a silly exercise but it’s the end of the year—let’s play English defamation law hypotheticals! Like being back in a media law or torts exam… the feeling we all nostalgically crave (Feel free to chime in with other jurisdictions)

$Disney recently settled with Donald Trump over an allegedly defamatory broadcast where a presenter stated repeatedly that the former president had been found liable by a civil jury for rape. Similar to English law, rape (as relevant to this case) in New York required penile penetration and the jury declined to find Trump liable for rape, instead finding him liable for sexual abuse for alleged forcible sexual touching. \textit{Question:} assuming that the broadcast was made in England, would the defamatory statement that Trump had been found liable for rape constitute `serious harm' for the purposes of the Defamation Act 2013?$

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 19/12/2024

I regret to inform you that the Guardian has gone full ‘freeman on the land’ and is one step away from asking if Magna Carta died in vain… ‘unconstitutional’ is an incoherent claim here showing no understanding of the British constitution.

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Strictly Obiter @strictlyobiter.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

The Ngāti Paoa Trust Board succeeded against Auckland Council in the CA and so the HC had to revisit costs. Jagose J amusingly points out that now that the Board has the upper hand its submissions on costs have done a 180. Ngāti Paoa Trust Board v Auckland Council [2024] NZHC 3872.

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Trite Law 🇬🇧 @tritelaw.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Trite Wednesbury!

[86]
On the assumption that the unvarnished Wednesbury
principle represents the applicable standard of review
[…] the question for this court is whether this
challenging threshold has been overcome. It is trite
that this threshold can be surpassed in any given case
only where a sufficient evidential foundation exists.
In re McMinnis [2024] NICA 77,
per curiam (coram McCloskey & Horner LJJ &
McBride J)
1

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 18/12/2024

To my immense disappointment, the note in the latest Harvard Law Review ‘equal protection prophylaxis’ is not about gender equity in birth control. 138 Harv. L. Rev. 632 (2024).

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 16/12/2024

Oh we say that but it’s a lie; the law was changed specifically to indulge dangerous driving because self-centred motorist juries didn’t want to convict for manslaughter. Killing someone with a car should be charged exactly the same as any other homicide.

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 15/12/2024

Style, not substance, is obviously the explanation. United States v. Monia, 317 U. S. 424, 446 (1943) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting).

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 15/12/2024

The Gov UK AI is exactly as reliable as you’d expect—my drugs gang can be a charity, my seditious organisation needs only a mild licence, and my work to help Islamic State can be a community interest corporation!

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Legal Style Blog @legalstyle.co.uk · 14/12/2024

If the 2028 election matchup is @mcuban.bsky.social against Marco Rubio, it would be very funny for wordplay because in a different sense the winner would be America’s first Cuban president.

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