Words that give your legal department a headache

When your documents come back from review by your legal department, you may notice that certain words are always removed or replaced.

The likely reason: These words carry specific legal interpretations that create an obligation your company may not be able to fulfill.

The list of terms that can cause legal problems varies according to your industry, country, and other factors. In general, these types of words will cause the most concern:

• Inclusive adjectives: all, every, always
• Verbs that promise results:  maximize, minimize, enable, ensure
• Superlatives:  complete, flawless, only, unmatched, the leading
• Commitment words:  guarantee, promise, warranty (unless you're writing the actual guarantee or warranty text). 
  

Work with your company's attorney to develop a list of words, phrases, and boilerplate text acceptable to both of you that can be used in any document for the product or company. This agreed-upon vocabulary can expedite both the writing and review processes.

Comments

[Janice King]

You are right Patsy, as in most communications, context is everything. I didn't mean to imply that these words should never be used, just used with caution.

Thanks for reading,

Janice

[Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad]

That's quite a list. I guess none of the people writing for these companies are writing copy that sells, then? How can you not use these words? I will have to presume that it depends on the context...