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{{a|contract|{{subtable|'''Sample''':<br>“Headings are for ease of reference only and shall be ignored in construing this Agreement”}}}}What is it that the [[legal eagle]] so distrusts about headings? | {{a|contract| | ||
[[File:Heading.png|450px|frameless|center]] | |||
{{subtable|'''Sample''':<br>“Headings are for ease of reference only and shall be ignored in construing this Agreement”}}}}{{quote|“Headings are for ease of reference only and shall be ignored in construing this Agreement”}}What is it that the [[legal eagle]] so distrusts about headings? | |||
If you are anything like the [[JC]], the headings are the only part of the contract you ''do'', with any regularity, read. Headings orient; they provide a superstructure; they provide ''context'' in a legal world so crushingly bereft of it. So why exclude them from helping understand what the document might mean? We are at a loss.<ref>It may be, in times past, the headings were added later by unqualified clerks, or something — I am totally making this up — but that isn’t how things work now.</ref> At best, this provides cover to the miscreant who later claims an interpretation the ''context'' — that is, the ''heading'' the term sat under — indicates is plainly fatuous. | If you are anything like the [[JC]], the headings are the only part of the contract you ''do'', with any regularity, read. Headings orient; they provide a superstructure; they provide ''context'' in a legal world so crushingly bereft of it. So why exclude them from helping understand what the document might mean? We are at a loss.<ref>It may be, in times past, the headings were added later by unqualified clerks, or something — I am totally making this up — but that isn’t how things work now.</ref> At best, this provides cover to the miscreant who later claims an interpretation the ''context'' — that is, the ''heading'' the term sat under — indicates is plainly fatuous. | ||
Look at it the other way: why would lawyers — surely the brain surgeons of | Look at it the other way: why would lawyers — surely the brain surgeons of language — ''add'' words to a legal contract if they wanted them to be ''ignored''? Would a ''real'' neurosurgeon, under the hood, make some harmless extra swipes with her scalpel for the sheer hell of it? How, in a world overflowing with unnecessary words, can that be a good idea? At best, this is pure ''[[waste]]''. | ||
Look, if you don’t want headings to mean anything, don’t ''use'' the damn things, and expect your document to be the kind of grey, unpunctuated [[entropic]] sludge of Times New Roman that emanates from every [[U.S. law firm|US law firm]]. Is that really what you want?<ref>[[U.S. attorney]]s: this is a rhetorical question.</ref> | Look, if you don’t want headings to mean anything, don’t ''use'' the damn things, and expect your document to be the kind of grey, unpunctuated [[entropic]] sludge of Times New Roman that emanates from every [[U.S. law firm|US law firm]]. Is that really what you want?<ref>[[U.S. attorney]]s: this is a rhetorical question.</ref> | ||
If, perversely, you ''care'' about getting to “yes”, and therefore your reader’s easy comprehension, use headings to structure your argument | If, perversely, you ''care'' about getting to “yes”, and therefore your reader’s easy comprehension, use headings to structure your argument. A legal contract is, after a fashion, an “argument”. But do not then complain if your readers expect your argument to follow the framework you have set out for it. | ||
====Objections==== | |||
Now your correspondent is a passionate amateur provocateur, and beyond his wildest aspirations this article, of all the dreck he has put out, has touched a nerve within his community. So let us address some objections: | |||
''Through the effluxions of the negotiation process, a clause that started out addressing one topic might wind up addressing something quite different. Even the reverse. What if an “[[assignment]]” clause turns into a “'''no''' assignment” clause, and someone forgets to amend the title?'' | |||
Aside from observing that “assignment” would be a serviceable title for a clause about assignment ''whatever'' its attitude to the topic — I know, bad example — this strikes as a charter for the negligent; an articulation of the [[Buttocractic oath]] for our learned friends. | |||
Isn’t getting the title right — thereby yielding a clear, understandable tract — a basic part of competent drafting? Especially if we grant, for a moment, that the heading is the part of the clause most people are likely to read? | |||
If not, why forgive our legal friends only their bished headings? Why not let them off all the other things they bugger up, too? | |||
That would be a great construction clause: | |||
{{Quote|“'''Clauses''': The text of each clause is for ease of justification of fees only and shall be ignored when adjudicating the competence of the professional advisers who prepared this Agreement.”}} | |||
{{sa}} | {{sa}} |