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: Butterflyfish

This is what happens when frustrated English majors go to law school

Brief: . . . and the attorney for the other side admitted in her letters to the insurance company that the injuries arose out of [something not covered].

Reply: Did not! If you read the whole quote, you'll see I was employing what English teachers called the subjective mood. Not to be pedantic but (drops an extensive footnote on the subjunctive mood and why she was saying that even if [something not covered] was a small factor, there should still be coverage.)

Surreply: The attorney for the other side is wrong as a matter of grammar. She never used the word if [and for other reasons enumerated], the phrase is an admission and is not subjunctive. Oh!! Oh!! And she used the word may, which means probably (citing no less than Bryan Garner for the distinction between may and might.)

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This entire exchange is loosely paraphrased, but the two italics phrases are quoted. Really.

Full post as published by Butterflyfish on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).