I definitely agree with this as well. The only note I would make is to always keep in mind who the audience in the PT is: Is this a brief to a court? Then cite the legal rule. Is it a letter to a client? Give them a synopsis. Letter to opposing counsel? Use your judgment.rcharter1978 wrote:On my PT's I tended to re-state the rule in my own words, or I would synthesize a rule from the cases, in which case it was in my own words. I rarely copied directly from the case. If I did, I would use quotes though. But, as you said typing out an entire 3 lines of a rule may be a waste of time if you can simply restate it in your own words using one line.optimistic_owl wrote:I have a question about pulling the legal rules in the PTs. My question/concern boils down to this: Can we recite the rule statements verbatim from the cases/library without using quotes? I'm currently using Themis, and I've noticed that their model answer always cite the rules word-for-word without even using quotes. (At the end of the paragraph, the answer would then cite to the correct case/statute.) I feel like this is bordering on plagiarism, and would be down-graded by the readers.
However, I realize that I spend precious minutes trying to write out the rule statements and/or make them flow using quotations. BUT, perhaps I am doing it all wrong. Can I really just copy an entire rule statement (even if it's 2-3 sentences, and with many factors) word-for-word -- or sometimes insert a "however" or "additionally," as Themis does -- without using quotes??
This would make life seeming so much easier on the PTs and save me a lot of time and headache
But I agree with rcharter, short of a brief to a court, I wouldn't copy word-for-word an entire three line rule statement. I think even if it was a brief, I could still boil down the rule, give the necessary cite and move on. Write in a lawyer-like fashion (whatever that means).
