Grammar for Lawyers Audio Course: Lesson 5 — Punctuation in Legal Writing: Why Small Marks Carry Serious Legal Weight
- Macson Bell Business & Law
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Most lawyers worry more about substance than punctuation. Fair enough — until a comma costs a company seven figures. Legal meaning doesn’t collapse because someone wrote a complex idea. It collapses because someone wrote it unclearly. And punctuation is often the structural weak point.
Punctuation in Legal Writing: A Practical Guide for Lawyers
Lawyers spend a great deal of time refining arguments, negotiating clauses, and aligning commercial intent. What derails those efforts is rarely dramatic. More often, it’s a quiet structural flaw — a comma that groups the wrong people together, a colon that introduces more than intended, or a dash that loosens the tone of a binding obligation.
Punctuation isn't ornamentation. It’s one of the few tools that can change a clause’s legal effect without altering a single word. When the stakes involve liability, timing, or allocation of risk, punctuation becomes part of the bargain.
Below is a practical guide to the marks that matter most in legal drafting, and why lawyers should treat them as decision-making devices, not decorative flourishes.
