By Alie Sonta Kamara
Almost all professions have room for redundant phrases, but the legal field has more of them in conspicuous fashion. Strict in the avoidance of redundant expressions are good journalists and experienced editors. This means the journalism field has a hammer and an eye for the odds to keep news exact, clear, goal-directed, and enjoyable.
As language is adjusting with many things turning archaic, legal professionals are becoming weary of phrases that mostly need only one word. Below is a list of redundant legal phrases seen around:
Null and void
Alter or change
Confessed and acknowledged
Convey, transfer, and set over
For and during the period
Force and effect
Free and clear
Full and complete
Give, devise and bequeath
Good and sufficient
Peace and quiet
Order and direct
Save and except
Suffer or permit
True and correct
Undertake and agree
The list truly goes on. History may want to say that the choice for the obvious doubles, stems from the claim that legal writing or language should be different from the ordinary, both in print and in courtroom verbal exchanges. But that was then. Many things have changed over the course of the centuries. Simplicity appears to gauge ordinary language over the coded one, doubled partly for professional convenience. My take.