So, would you love to become a freelance writer dealing with legal subjects?

About Freelance Legal Writing

The trade encompasses a lot as it proves a broad field. It features different styles of writing and can involve legal and technical documents. For instance, freelance writers do legal documents, memorandums, motions, and briefs founded on the client’s needs. Legal analysts review case laws, prepare reports, and analyze trends for lawyers to use while preparing cases. Additionally, legal correspondence also carries out a similar type of work that inclines towards the profit-making market compared to other attorneys.

However, other writers dealing with legal matters do far less technical exertion. All they do involves preparing blog posts besides attributes that assist in promoting the operation of law firms. It can include magazine and newspaper articles, which cover court and other legal news. It also incorporates materials for corporate marketing.

Starting as a Freelance Writer on Legal Matters

It can prove vital to start legal writing with assignments that seem comfortable for you and one that you can do them confidently. For instance, if you deem preparing a law brief as too complex, owing to the volume of knowledge you need to comprehend, then start with something easier, such as a law firm’s company website. Beginning with errands that you can feel comfortable completing before proceeding to more complex pieces as your experience grows proves a wonderful way of beginning to build a clientele base.

Getting Started Writing

Like every field, the legal world has its language jargon. It therefore proves an excellent idea to get some time and learn the legal lingo before starting your freelance writing applications or when building your profile and portfolio with samples.

Additionally, it proves a brilliant idea to get client reviews, and use these as references on your website. When people see your work getting used by experts in the legal sphere, consequently, it creates confidence in your capabilities, and therefore, your hiring chances. Further, keeping your work samples can prove an excellent way of regularly updating your portfolio. Sometimes, working exclusively on legal writing can improve your standing as an individual committed to the legal industry. It can imply to your knowledgeability about legal trends, among other issues.    

Becoming Attentive to Industry-Specific Demands

Legal writing as a niche requires writers to become attentive to specific demands of the legal industry, as these demands differ from other writing jobs.  So remember to become confidential and discreet if you have to write memos, contracts, briefs, or similar legal documents for your client. Signing a confidentiality treatise before starting any work can prove significant for many potential clients. However, you have to treat the client’s documents with such a high level of discretion and confidentiality when they do not seem interested in maintaining your integrity and reputation as a legal writer.

Additionally, try and become careful when it comes to the words you choose to use, especially when developing marketing content or an ad copy for a legal firm. Strict regulations about titles apply, and therefore, try and avoid terms such as “top” or “best” when you refer to a law firm or an attorney. Additionally, you cannot give legal advice on your write-up, and you may have to incorporate a disclaimer in the write-up. It becomes crucial to explicitly follow the rules as failure can expose your client to fines, among other repercussions. Such things can compromise your standing as a legal writer and reduce your chances of getting more clients.  

Conclusion

Legal freelance jobs proves a limited niche compared to other writing jobs. If you become interested in pursuing this niche, then it would help if you considered everything discussed and cultivated a loyal clientele base.

These are the words you should keep off your writing:

• It
• Those
• There
• Them
• Which
• That
• They

Several companies dealing with technical writing situated in India and overseas have their checklist customized that gets followed in writing. Below are some of the dos and don’ts for jotting a technical document.

Do’s

The first thing you should consider is knowing the audience you target well, and you should also have a reference to a standard style that should get prescribed. Have a pre-write of the content to know the in and out of the gaps. Understand the flows of the knowledge involved in the end. Ensure that you illuminate a perfect display of crisp readability in the content you write. Utilize the active verbs to help convey the vivid steps of processes. The words you use should project possessiveness.

Utilize vivid, simple words that you understand well. Do not unnecessarily use prepositional phrases. The number of adjectives and adverbs should get minimized. In case you discuss several subjects in your document, ensure that you utilize smooth transitions between two topics. Locate a connector between the two blocks or chapters, and then maintain a great flow to enhance better comprehension.

If you want to use lists, tables, or figures:

1. Make sure the data you use gets verification.
2. Using a parallel structure, list the data in a tabulated format.
3. Note captions to illuminate the information in the tables or figures.

Review the content and make changes to the parts that can get better presentations. Scrutinize the document for mistakes, ambiguity, logic breaks, typos, and any other dirt that can get destructive in the text.

Don’ts

• Avoid using abbreviations unless you must. Do not use contractions or words that apply to gender-specific issues. Avoid using intensifiers to illuminate an action’s strength or a subject’s property.
• Avoid using filler words like modifiers, pairs, or redundancy and categories that are similar. The long strings of nouns should not get used in light of modifying the last sentence noun.
• Do not give your opinions about writing. Avoid directly addressing the reader unless you have come up with a user manual. Avoid repetition of an obvious conclusion of the action.
• Avoid assuming anything that touches on the product or process in growth. Do not infuse humor in your report. The amusing thing may be offensive to some of your readers.
• Do not send the content hastily for further processing before glossing the content for correctness and coherency.

Ensure that you follow the above dos and don’ts in great precision. They will help you ensure a fantastic and quality work on the projects you will put your hands on at any given time or day. If you employ the rules in your next writing, you will not regret the results.