A Lawyer's profession, apart from sound eloquence and presentation requires good drafting skills. Sound drafting skills are essential for putting across one's pleadings effectively. Importance of Legal drafting skills emanate from the legal maxim "verba volant, scriptamanent" which means spoken words fly away, written remain. Haggard has said that "Drafting is one of the most intellectually demanding of all lawyering skills. It requires knowledge of the law, the ability to deal with abstract concepts, investigative instincts, an extraordinary degree of prescience, and organizational skills."
Pleadings should be drafted in such fashion that the person reading them is able to maintain a constant flow of thought with regards to the subject in question. A judge has to sometimes fish through large files to infer and to decide an issue in controversy between the parties to the suit. If the judge is not able to deduce the facts of the case accurately and with consistency, his/her judgement could go for a toss. Therefore it is pertinent to draft pleadings in such a way, that it not only puts forth the respective party's facet of facts effectively before the court, but also assists the court in drawing an informed inference. Poorly drafted pleadings not only make the case of the respective party incoherent but also confuse the judge altogether.
Legal pleadings should be as simple as simple as possible, without the use of excessive legal jargon or phraseology. Sure, a certain level of formality is necessary since court pleadings are formal in nature but having said so, an endeavour is required to be made not to complicate pleadings unnecessarily.
Through my years in practice, I have noticed many young lawyers who in spite of being a couple of years in law practice, are very poor in drafting applications to be filed in courts. Most of them though, require just an initial push or to be given a basic idea of the application, in order to start drafting it. With the intention of doing the very same for the young lawyers and law students alike, I have taken the initiative of writing this book. This book is not exhaustive by any means, but is meant to give young draftsmen a basic reference on drafting applications.
