Why do court documents require you to do things like start every sentence describing an accusation of fraud with, "It was further part of said scheme and artifice to defraud that Defendant (insert name here) . . . "? Is someone afraid that the Judge or jury will get hopelessly confused if you write, "To advance his scheme, the Defendant also did X"? Or, heaven forbid, if you merely write, "He/She also did X"? For the love of God, can we at least leave out "artifice"?

I think we may have the start of a new feature here at removealldoubt - stupid lawyer stuff. I'm sure we can get LOTS of other nominations.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 5:31 PM