Digital Drafting
International Legislative Drafting Institute June 2018 Overview
Getting Instructions Resources and Materials Gathering and Outlining Thoughts Writing and Editing Review, Comment and Revisions Tracking and Delivery Overview
Disclaimer: No Personal Financial Interests
We will address only selected topics from the notes
My gifts to you:
Drafting Checklist [pdf]
Drafting Template [Word]
Tutorial files from this presentation [mov]
Download from http://philknight.ca/law.html Getting Instructions
LiveScribe SmartPen www.livescribe.com
It’s a pen, voice recorder, scanner, and computer. All in a pen.
Described @ http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/ls3/features.html
Reviewed @ http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gadgets/livescribe-3-smartpen-1205777/review
Use Voice notes, a feature on most devices Resources & Materials
Precedents Legal texts: WorldLII: www.worldlii.org Commonwealth http://www.commonlii.org Legislation and Statutory Interpretation eJournal: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/isplayjournalbrowse.cfm Statute Law Review: http://slr.oxfordjournals.org/
LawProse:
Books: http://www.lawprose.org/bryan-garner/books-by-bryan-garner/
Blog: sign up free @ http://www.lawprose.org/lawprose-blog/
Articles: view @ http://lawprose.org/bryan_garner/articles_by_bryan_a_garner.php Resources: Writing Blogs
The Best Legal-Writing Blogs (2014) http://goingpaperlessblog.com/2010/01/27/the-10-best-legal-writing-blogs/
https://www.onelegal.com/blog/the-best-books-blogs-and-resources-for-legal-writing/
Adams Drafting By Ken Adams, On drafting legal contracts www.adamsdrafting.com
Legible: By Wayne Sless Advice on legal writing http://sites.utexas.edu/legalwriting/
Disputed Issues Controversies in legal research, analysis, and writing. http://disputedissues.blogspot.ca]
Legal Writing Profs Blog Law Professor Blogs Network http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwriting
The (New) Legal Writer Resources for lawyers and other writers, by Ray Ward.
http://raymondpward.typepad.com/newlegalwriter/
Legal Writing Pro https://www.legalwritingpro.com/blog/
Library of Congress https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/07/legal-drafting-a-beginners-guide/
Mark Adler’s Comments http://www.adler.demon.co.uk/comment.htm Resources: On Line Communities
Commonwealth Assn. of Legislative Counsel: http://www.calc.ngo Linked-In: Legal Drafting Group: www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4108803
Clarity: Clear legal Language: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=5092657
Clarity International http://www.clarity-international.net/
Legal Writing Institute: https://www.lwionline.org
PLAIN www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/ Organizing Thoughts
Collect your thoughts and materials as Notes Any data that can be recorded by a computer can be a “Note”
Notes can be organized by projects, and other categories
EverNote (Universal) www.evernote.com
One Note (Windows Only) https://www.onenote.com
DevonThink (MacOS Only) https://www.devontechnologies.com Organizing Thoughts
From Evernote Blog Organizing Thoughts
Mind Mapping
There are many options for a digital version of the “Whirly Bird”
OmniGraffle www.omnigroup.com
MindManager www.mindjet.com
Scapple www.literatureandlatte.com Organizing Thoughts
Create outlines Converting Your Mind Map to an Annotated Outline
OmniOutliner https://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner
Converts from Omnigraffle and from Scapple, using Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) file format
Build directly from your notes
OmniOutliner https://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner Word
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-an-outline-from-scratch-87e44e0d-ecba-4ec1- b1c9-b9fa46a230fc Organizing Thoughts
1. Create Mind Map
2. Export to Outliner
3. Annotate Outline
4. Export to Word Writing & Editing
Dictation: You talk––the computer types. Windows Speech Recognition https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/14213/windows-how-to-use-speech-recognition Apple OSX Dictation https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202584 Dragon Dictation https://www.nuance.com/dragon/dragon-for-mac/software.html Writing & Editing
Text Editors There are many options for typing your text.
All will provide for output to a variety of file types, including Word and Acrobat (pdf). Word
Scrivener https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview
Pages https://www.apple.com/ca/pages/ Writing & Editing
Reference Tools
Visual Thesaurus: Word finder and dictionary http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ Dictionaries: Oxford English Dictionary [iOS; Android] Free, but Adled
Reduced subscription rates for some countries
Public Lookup Site https://public.oed.com/subscriber-services/lookup-tools/
Blacks Law Dictionary
Free Access Online Version https://thelawdictionary.org
OSCOLA: Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php Writing & Editing Writing & Editing
Managed Consistency, and so much more . . .
Setting Text Styles https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Customize-or-create-new-styles-in-Word-d38d6e47- f6fc-48eb-a607-1eb120dec563
Standard Format . . .
Templates https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-a-new-document-by-using-a-template-in-Word-2016-for- Mac-4be30f22-17d9-48c2-b795-318f08b1484b
Running Headers and Footers https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-a-header-or-footer-B87EE4DF-ABC1-41F8-995B-
B39F6D99C7ED
Tame your Definitions . . . Writing & Editing
Taming Definitions in Word
1. Bookmark each Definition
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/add-or-delete-bookmarks-d13f4bab-fb76-4e09-9c3a-239e1a0c1568
2. Link each use of the defined word to the bookmark
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-or-edit-a-hyperlink-5d8c0804-f998-4143-86b1-1199735e07bf
Writing & Editing
Managed Consistency, and so much more . . .
Setting Text Styles
Standard Format . . .
Tame your Definitions
Automatic Section Numbering
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Number-your-headings-CE24E028-4CB4-4D4A-BF25-FB2C61FC658
Writing & Editing
Managed Consistency, and so much more . . .
Setting Text Styles
Standard Format . . .
Tame your Definitions
Automatic Section Numbering
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Number-your-headings-CE24E028-4CB4-4D4A-BF25-FB2C61FC6585
Automatic Cross-References
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-a-cross-reference-300b208c-e45a-487a-880b-a02767d9774b
Writing & Editing
Managed Consistency, and so much more . . .
Setting Text Styles
Standard Format . . .
Tame your Definitions
Automatic Section Numbering
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Number-your-headings-CE24E028-4CB4-4D4A-BF25-FB2C61FC6585
Automatic Cross-References
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-a-cross-reference-300b208c-e45a-487a-880b-a02767d9774b
Automatic ToC, Arrangement Lists
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-a-table-of-contents-in-Word-882e8564-0edb-435e-84b5-1d8552ccf0c0
Tracking & Security
Tracking
Historical record: Have you retained records of the Bill at various stages, with or without appended notes?
Have you kept a file of related materials?
Security
Integrity:
Is the text the complete statement of approved policy and nothing else?
Preservation: Are there multiple copies of the text, stored separately, and securely? Tracking & Security
Tracking
Use a date protocol for naming drafts.
Keep separate documents after each significant revision.
Keep a file of related materials; use hyperlinks in your working draft to relate separate files to relevant provisions
Security
Integrity:
Use passwords and watermarks
Never distribute the original - or anything that can be mistaken for it - for comment.
Preservation: Keep multiple copies of each version of the text, stored separately, and securely.
Consider using Dropbox or similar cloud file storage service, if your office rules permit. Sharing, Review, Comment & Revision
Dropbox www.dropbox.com Acrobat Review and Comment
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/starting-pdf-review.html Managing Public Comments
Use an Outliner App
append relevant file links
sort by provision number
catalogue issues Other Sources
Giovanni Sartor Open Management of Legislative Documents
in Stefanou & Xanthaki, eds. Drafting Legislation: A Modern Approach, 2008
Paul Salembier Computer Assisted Drafting
Ch. 12 in Legal and Legislative Drafting, Lexis Nexis (2nd edition) 2018 Presentation by Phil Knight, for International Legislative Drafting Institute Public Law Center, Tulane/Loyola
New Orleans, June 2018 [email protected] http://www.philknightlegal.ca