My clients know that I love brevity.  I think that if you can say something in one sentence of 10-12 words, that’s great. In fact, if that 10 word sentence can be cut to six, then count me in.  After all, why do you need to stretch it out one thought to 20 sentences?

Lawyers are often accused of writing something to death and usually doing so in some foreign language that no one can understand.  I think that can happen for any number of reasons,  some of which are of no consequence.  However, from my experience, extended drafting usually comes from a problem that was revealed in a past document or court case that lawyers read about.

Let me share an example:

Several years ago, I was handling a trust administration dispute in which a simple phrase was at issue.  The wording used in the trust boilerplate was ambiguous; this instrument was drafted many years earlier by another attorney.   The language appeared to require a distribution of the trust principal to the beneficiary, but some boilerplate in the back of the document loosely suggested that the trust could retain the funds in trust.  I represented the trustee who saw it one way, while the beneficiary saw it another.  In this instance, the beneficiary had substance abuse problems, and the trustee wanted to hold funds back in trust.

After settling the dispute following eight months of arguing and legal fees, I soon realized that this “ambiguous” language was very common in Tampa trust documents, including my own!  I immediately took that six word phrase and expanded on it so that we created clarity for future Florida trust instruments.   Six words became forty-two words, but I believe that those additional words will help to eliminate these types of disputes.

This issue is presented all of the time, which causes a lawyer to expand/revise/rewrite language in a Will or Trust until it becomes an epic novel.   My suggestion the next time you get a draft from an attorney is simple:  read the draft, make notes throughout (including your questions), and then ask your attorney to explain the draft in whatever detail you feel is important.  Do not forget that those documents, however long that they may be, represent your wishes and not your attorney’s.  You deserve to understand every bit of it.