As amended from time to time

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A coda of legal flatulence that goes without saying and is capable of almost infinite embellishment if you are prepared to put your mind to it. Try, for example “as amended, supplemented, updated and/or augmented from time to time”. Perhaps toss in “orally or in writing”. There’s scope for avoiding some doubt that wasn’t there in the first place.

As amended from time to time usually describes a contract, statute or regulation, will be buried in a definitions section, and in truth does no real harm, but it will any offend prose stylists who happen to be reading. (The likelihood of prose stylists reading capital markets trading agreements are, however, vanishingly low.)

But the observation to make, when a pedantic counterpart interposes this phrase into your graceful text is this: “Who, in their right mind, would want to refer to an agreement, regulation, statutory instrument or other dated obligation as it exists at any date other than today?”

“An ERISA lawyer” is the usual response.

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