Obiter was amused by a discussion posted on the Gazette’s LinkedIn group by solicitor David Lewis, entitled ‘What annoys me about other lawyers’. Lewis bemoans his peers’ verbosity, writing ‘pursuant to’ or ‘under the provisions of’ instead of ‘under’, and ‘in respect of’ instead of ‘for’.

Tim Preston, solicitor at Lightfoots in Oxford, chimes in, lamenting the use of: ‘the aforesaid’ or ‘the said’ when ‘the above’ will do; ‘I should be grateful if you would’ instead of ‘please’; and ‘I need to have sight of the contract’ rather than ‘I need to see the contract’.

Any readers with similar grumbles are invited to share them by contacting obiter@lawsociety.org.uk. You can join the Gazette’s LinkedIn group.