Clarification. I remain surprised at the number of intelligent, articulate, and well-read legal professionals who still use “and/or” in legal writing. ALWD Citation Manual; eBook. The AGLC should also be consulted when referencing international legal documents. FOr example: Barrett v Enfield LBC (1999) 49 BMLR 1 (HL). Round brackets are used when the report series is organised by volume numbers, square brackets are used when the reports are organised by year rather than volume. Bryan Garner is maybe the leading prescriptive guru on legal writing. Brackets are symbols that we use to contain "extra information", or information that is not part of the main content. I remain surprised at the number of intelligent, articulate, and well-read legal professionals who still use “and/or” in legal writing. Davis v. Andrews, Tex.Civ. Brackets always come in pairs—an "opening" bracket before the extra information, and a "closing" bracket after it. Here is what he says in Legal Writing in Plain English:. In these circumstances, you don’t need the year to locate the correct volume, as the volume numbers are unique, so the year will be in round brackets. Using Square and Round Brackets. Barret v Enfield LBC [2001] 2 AC 550. App.,361 S.W 2nd 419,423 Here the year is in square brackets, this means that the year is the primary method of finding the book on the shelf. I am therefore creating this post to document a fairly complete list of authorities that support what I think is the better (if not obvious) view: never use “and/or” in legal writing … Square brackets indicate "the four corner rule" is in play; Four corners rule = " Under" four corner's rule", Intention of the parties , especialyy that of grantor, is to be gathered from instruments as a whole and not from isolated parts thereof. Brackets are symbols that we use to contain "extra information", or information that is not part of the main content. The brackets are one of the most commonly used punctuation mark in English grammar therefore, it is necessary for one to be aware of the various ways of its correct usage to improve towards good writing skills.. Some are merely embarrassing. Brackets allow the insertion of editorial material inside quotations. This is my list. Brackets are used in many computer programming languages, primarily to force the order of evaluation and for parameter lists and array indexing. I am therefore creating this post to document a fairly complete list of authorities that support what I think is the better (if not obvious) view: never use “and/or” in legal writing … Lawyers use square brackets to indicate that drafting is incomplete, uncertain or not yet agreed but otherwise they do not have any special meaning or status attached to them. If the original material includes a noun or pronoun that is unclear, brackets can be used for clarification. But they are also used to denote general tuples, sets and other structures, just as in mathematics. You need to make sure that you use the right brackets when citing law reports. Ensure that the brackets used in your citation match the type of brackets used in your source. In these circumstances, you don’t need the year to locate the correct volume, as the volume numbers are unique, so the year will be in round brackets. Some I commit myself, sometimes deliberately. Not all of these sins are really deadly. Brackets indicate that the year actually forms part of the title of the volume. If you are unsure which style of brackets to use, ask yourself – can I locate the correct report without the year? In case citations, the issue of whether the year is contained within brackets or parentheses is a very important matter. British English and American English define them differently, as you see below. Another use of brackets. Usage of Brackets . If square brackets are accidentally left in a completed document then it will be a matter of interpreting the document by applying the general principles of contractual interpretation. For example: Watching a popular actor who usually plays good characters play a villain (like Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition [2002]) has a negative effect on many movie-goers. Brackets. Examples of Uses of Brackets in Sentence Making Inclusion of … There are two main types of bracket: round and square []. You have a choice between round brackets, commas, and dashes. Brackets can be used in the context of one’s own writing when more than one thing needs to be set apart. If you are unsure which style of brackets to use, ask yourself – … Others, however, carry real risks for clients and lawyers. There may be several other uses as well, depending on the language at hand.