A newly released title is set to change the way legal professionals tackle the drafting of pleadings. Authored by former Judge of the High Court and Competition Appeal Court, Advocate Ismail Hussain SC, Practical Drafting Skills will be released by LexisNexis South Africa on 18 November 2019.

“The importance of drafting clear and succinct pleadings cannot be underestimated,” says Advocate Hussain. “There is a widely accepted view within the legal profession that this is a skill that needs attention. My goal was to provide a practical working title with a step-by-step guide to acquiring drafting skills.”

The title takes the reader through the process of how to determine a cause of action from a client statement to how to draft the subsequent pleadings, assisting with valuable skills transfer. Currently,  many legal professionals rely on precedents when required to draft documents. This can result in a lack of clarity in the final documents created. Practical Drafting Skills addresses the process of obtaining instructions and then drafting the pleadings. There are also chapters on plain language writing and logical thinking.

“The title will effectively assist law students, candidate attorneys and pupils – and even practicing legal professionals – by improving their drafting skills so that they are no longer slaves to precedents,” Hussain says. “The result of this valuable skills transfer is that judges will be able to understand the papers presented, saving them time. This is in the best interest of the public too, and for the development of our common law.”

Available in Print (ISBN 9780639005232) Practical Drafting Skills by Advocate Ismail Hussain SC retails for R529.00 including VAT and excluding delivery. The online version (ISBN ONLPRACTDRAFT) is available for R529.00. To purchase, click here to visit the LexisNexis online bookstore.