This article, Curb Your Editorial Urges When Describing a Court’s Actions, Kenneth Oettle (NJLJ) (10/5/050) finally clarified for me the subtle differences in verbs like recognized, observed, ruled, held and others that describe how a court acted. As a general rule of thumb, here’s how the author feels about some of these verbs:
Affirmed — double meaning
* Asserted — too forceful; Court has no need to assert
* Averred — word is rarely used
* Declared — grandiose
* Explained — didn’t, really
* Opined — true, but probably too formal
* Remarked — too casual
So, just another thing to obsess over in writing a brief.
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