Federal Judicial Center

Judicial Writing Manual: A Pocket Guide for Judges Federal Judicial Center Second edition

The link between courts and the public is the written word. With rare exceptions, it is through judicial opinions that courts communicate with litigants, lawyers, other courts, and the community. Whatever the courtÕs statutory and constitutional status, the written word, in the end, is the source and the measure of the courtÕs authority. It is therefore not enough that a decision be correctÑit must also be fair and reasonable and readily understood. The burden of the judicial opinion is to explain and to persuade and to satisfy the world that the decision is principled and sound. What the court says, and how it says it, is as important as what the court decides. It is important to the reader. But it is also important to the author because in the writing lies the test of the thinking that underlies it. ÒGood writing, Ó Ambrose Bierce said, Òessentially is clear thinking made visible.Ó Ambrose Bierce, Write It Right 6 (rev. ed. 1986).