Legal English: Report Referencing

Legal English can be very confusing. I think that lawyers insist on using these archaic English legal terms just to confuse everyone and make sure that lawyers have plenty of work and the English legal system is kept in business for years to come. But until there is a huge change (if ever) and we reach a point of legal writing in plain English, I’m afraid that  we will all just have to make an effort to learn the very specific English for legal purposes, or keep on paying out huge amounts of cash to lawyers who already know these terms. So here is a legal English exercise to help you become accustomed to some legal vocabulary used in official business reports. These words refer to position, time and result, usually within the document that they appear in. While they seem confusing at first, they can add legal precision.

Legal English Exercise

(Upper Intermediate / Advanced) Put the legal referencing words into the correct sentences below. There is a definition in brackets at the end of every sentence which implies the correct answer.

1. above
2. hereby
3. thereinafter
4. aforementioned
5. herein
6. thereinbefore
7. below
8. hereunder
9. therein
10. hereafter
11. thereafter

a. The __________________ parties should not therefore be considered for any future contracts (stated or listed earlier) b. As can be seen in the chart ______________ wholesale oil prices have risen by 8.6% this year. (written or shown at a later point in the document) c. As mentioned ______________ the new system should be implemented by July 21st to conform to the new regulations. (written or shown at an earlier point in the document) d. Some confusion arose, as the original contract named the client as The Penryn Partnership in the first paragraph, but ____________ as Penryn Ltd.. (listed or mentioned earlier in the document) e. Please clarify whether the delivery date is December 2nd as mentioned in the final paragraph of the agreement, or December 9th as stated ____________ . (listed or mentioned earlier in the document) f. For further information on this matter, please consult the documents listed ____________ . (immediately after this phrase) g. The Mason Jones Edwardes Partnership, _______________ MJEP, have submitted a tender for the project. (from this point onwards) h. All signatories to this contract are obliged to comply with the conditions stated ______________ unless given explicit permission to do otherwise. (in this document) i. Please consult also the contract signed 5th May 2011 ref: SGI837261 and the terms and conditions cited ___________ . (in that document) j. The contract states that payments of 10 000 GBP should be made by June 1st and April 1st, then 5 000 GBP on the first day of the month ____________ for the remainder of the contract period (from that time onward) k. Mrs Jameson has failed to act in accordance with the conditions stated in the contract and we _____________ revoke said contract. (as a result, in this way)     If you need to improve your legal English terms knowledge, SGI could arrange a unique corporate legal English course for you here in London, where you would study one-to-one with one of our experienced Business English trainers. But if you don’t have the time for that, here are the answers  🙂   Answers:

1. c
2. k
3. d
4. a
5. h
6. e
7. f
8. b
9. i
10. g
11. j