Lawyers have a terrible habit of Overusing Capitalization. This goes for pleadings, discovery requests, briefs, you name it. Exuberant capitalization is the “cop talk” of legal writing.

For those prone to over-capitalization, the Evanston Township, Illinois, high school has a great primer on capitalization. Litigators capitalize some other words, like Plaintiff and Defendant, by convention, but many get carried away.

Capitalize the name of a document only when you are referring to a specific document. “complaint,” “counterclaim,” “third-party complaint,” and similar terms are sufficiently generic that you never need to capitalize them.

For any delicate questions of capitalization, as well as other fine points of legal style, Bryan Garner’s Redbook is an excellent legal writer’s reference.

Kudos to LexisNexis for its efforts to reduce paper waste! At a moot court orientation session at the University of Minnesota Law School this morning, the LexisNexis rep showed up and—this blew me away—did not hand out a single sheet of paper.

The Westlaw rep, meanwhile, made a huge book available. Mercifully, they did not pass out copies to everyone this year. I took one the first year I taught moot court, and it went right into the recycling bin.

“Green” is becoming as lame a word as “extreme,” but I still like to see companies reducing waste. Especially the paper garbage they churn out. Score one for LexisNexis.

Every Friday for the next few weeks I will be posting interviews with solo and small firm attorneys who talked to me about their marketing strategies, online and offline, high tech and old school. Of course, I also asked about the tools they use to manage their practice. If you are interested in being interviewed, please e-mail me.

The first attorney who responded was Jennifer R. Lewis Kannegieter, who started her own practice last November. She has a blog loosely focused on family law, estate planning, probate, and similar topics, and you can find her on Facebook and mypractice.

Since Kannegieter’s practice is relatively new, she is still feeling her way when it comes to marketing, trying a few different approaches and waiting to see how they work out. She views her website and blog as one of the most important parts of her early marketing plan, and focuses on raising her profile through online and offline networking through personal relationships.

Read on for highlights from the interview.

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My good friend and financial advisor, David Benning, recently loaned me The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About It, by Michael E. Gerber. David is a small business owner, like me, and he said The E-Myth Revisited had changed the way he approached developing his business.

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On Leap Day, the Minnesota Supreme Court adopted significant changes to Rule 68 (PDF link), which outlines the procedure for making an offer of judgment or settlement (sometimes also referred to as a “firm offer”).

Rule 68 allows any party to offer judgment in a specified amount to the other party. That amount then becomes something like the measure of success of the lawsuit. The offeror must get a judgment of less than the amount offered, or it must pay the offeree’s costs and disbursements (under Minn. Stat. §§ 549.02 and 549.04). And vice-versa, if the offeree ultimately obtains a judgment of more than the amount offered.

The rule is, obviously, calculated to encourage settlement of cases. The new rule deviates significantly from both the old rule and the federal rule.

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For the word nerds, here are interviews of eight of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices (Roberts, Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Alito), taken between 2006 and 2007 by Bryan Garner, the legal writing geek. I have not had a chance to sit through all of them, yet, but I plan to set aside some time tomorrow. Whatever the Supremes have to say on legal writing is worth hearing.

Lawyers['] Writing Wrongs is a relatively new blog that exposes humorously-bad legal writing. Author “Legal Literatus” lists the following subtitles:

• Your briefs are shitty.
• You get paid $200/hour for this?
• Displeasing the Court with Shitty Writing.
• Counsellor, why?
• Sometimes pro se is better.

I think the “pinata brief” is the best example of the brand of humor provided by Lawyers['] Writing Wrongs:

Defendant [prison guards] entered [plaintiff's] cell with plans for a party. And though [plaintiff] was invited to this party, his only purpose at this party was to be their personal pinata. Once Defendant[s] entered the cell they began putting a whooping on [plaintiff] like none he had ever experienced before. Each of the Defendant[s] took turns punching and kicking [plaintiff] in the head and torso of his body. Unfortunately, when the beating had ceased, no candy spilled out of [plaintiff], rather, he was left with three broken ribs from this brutal and savage attack.

(Emphasis added.) If that isn’t humorously-bad writing, maybe you need a copy of the Elements of Legal Style more than you thought.

[via Minnesota Lawyer Blog]

When it comes to starting a small business, a law practice is one of the least-expensive options. A computer and a clear space on the kitchen table are about all you need. Well, almost. There are a few other things. In this article, I will lay out what you need to start up a solo practice, plus a few nice-to-have extras. This is not a bare minimum, but I have left out things like registering an LLC or corporation ($160 in Minnesota), liability insurance (mine was $599 for my first year), and business cards and stationery (I don’t use stationery, but I buy my business cards from VistaPrint for $29.99/500).

The following purchases will get you through your first year, at least, but the hardware should last far longer. If you shop wisely, your hardware should last at least 5 years, if not longer.

Assuming you do not already have a computer, printer and internet connection, your startup costs would be just under $3,000, leaving some room for miscellaneous supplies. If you do already have a computer and printer, you can convert them to business use and save $1,248.99 or more.

Even better, your second year overhead will drop to $837.60, since you will already have all the hardware you will need.

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When it comes to marketing your practice, it is essential to know your audience and focus your marketing on the needs of your potential client base. Take Peter John, a 1998 graduate of the LSU Law Center who holds an MBA and, apparently, a pilot’s license. He is also a reggae artist with some catchy lines.

David Lat called up P’Ta Mon last August, and John turns out to be quite articulate and even a bit sage about his advertising campaign.

You’ve got to find your style and go with it.

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Maybe that should go without saying, but Wisconsin attorney Michael R. Inglimo apparently needed a memo. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently disbarred Inglimo for three years for, among other things, trying a case while stoned, selling (or giving) drugs to clients, taking drugs with clients, sleeping with a client’s wife as payment, spending client funds on a car for himself, and more. He also must pay attorney fees to the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Responsibility in the amount of $42,400.96, plus those fees incurred on appeal. Inglimo was apparently licensed in Minnesota, where he was also disbarred for three years.