Which v. That
Last year, I wrote this post and this post about the difference between which and that, a subtlety that so many attorneys don’t get.
The Legal Satyricon has this interesting post about what can happen when legislators forget all about the difference between which and that.
Note: Legislatures normally get a pass when they ignore the rules of grammar, but not always. Here’s a story of courts landing on two sides of a dispute created when Congress — the same folks who brought you the No Child Left Behind Act — dispensed with good grammar.
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Imagine this: you’re an attorney drafting an important agreement, but you don’t understand the difference between which and that. A year later, your client learns it has to pay through the nose because you used which when you should have used that.
That, I’m sure, could be most embarrassing. And it could be costly. Just imagine the impression you’ll make on clients (current as well as potential) when they hear you still haven’t mastered 8th-grade English.
3 March 2008 at 13:37
Judges seem to have as much trouble with this distinction as other lawyers do. Judicial opinions are rife with the use of “which” where “that” would be proper, as in, “The rule which appellant urges us to adopt would be unworkable,” or “The statute which governs here is . . . .” Drives me nuts.
3 March 2008 at 13:47
Yes, but I don’t see how a judge could get in much trouble for the error. On the other hand, when an attorney (who charges someone $450/hr) makes this error in an agreement, it might as well lead to disciplinary proceedings.
5 June 2008 at 9:08
[...] a REAL editor, this sentence needs some attention. Not only does it contain a grammatical error, it says that some mobile marketing campaigns, rather than the FTC, are attempting to set forth [...]
8 December 2008 at 13:52
THAT and WHICH used incorrectly makes me crazy! You can kind of blow it off when regular people are just talking, but when it’s a part of a Pleading, the wrong word can change the entire meaning of a pertinent statement. I’m surprised that judges don’t throw out cases for that reason. It seems like more emphasis is placed on the width of margins and the size of the font than using punctuation and sentence structure as tools for clearer communication.
I’ve pointed it out to everyone I know, and not one person thinks it’s a big deal. So, I’ve come to accept that I’m the only person alive who thinks “that and which” are not interchangeable.
And…
What’s with commas instead of periods or semi-colons?
Must be my age!