How well could you pretend to be a lawyer, or other profession, on this message board?

[johnpost]

i looked

Question for Beryl_Mooncalf

also

Cop killed in car chase, thugs charged with murder 1

wow

[chula]

@Noel_Prosequi

…for a given value of “plain”. There is something in the way lawyers use English that serves as a Shibboleth for those in the trade to recognise each other. It’s not deliberately exclusionary, but it’s effective nonetheless. People who try to fake it always sound like those sovereign citizen loons.

And lawyers use seemingly ordinary words in a technical way. The best example is “consideration”.

I’m sure all professions are much the same. The mass of technical understanding lying behind what they say tends to shine through pretty efficiently.

Yes, sometimes you are reading something and the choice of language tips you off that the writer is a lawyer. But that doesn’t mean that failure to use lawyer language means the person is that a lawyer. The question here is whether you can spot a non-lawyer, not spot a lawyer.

It can be funny to read what sounds like legalese to a lay person. I read some inscrutable pro se briefs not too long ago. Of course, the people who want to represent themselves are usually the last people who should.

[Northern_Piper]

@johnpost

i looked

Question for Beryl_Mooncalf - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board

also

Cop killed in car chase, thugs charged with murder 1 - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

wow

To quote George Takei: “Oh my.”

[Peter_Morris]

I claimed that I am a former artists model, but I was exposed.

[The_Second_Stone]

I’ve been faking being a lawyer in front of judges for 25 years now. Here’s how to do it: go to law school, take a bar review course, take the bar, get a little plastic card from the state to get discounts at Hertz, get listed on the state bar site, and sit in courtrooms a lot and watch and listen and write lots of motions and discovery responses. Nobody actually checks to see if you really are a lawyer. I’ve had one client in 25 years who checked me out on the state bar site. Get business cards printed up. Drive a BMW.