Whether you are a seasoned trial lawyer wanting to boost your career or a law student looking to share your knowledge about this field, writing articles about the legal world might come across your mind.
Not everyone has a good grasp of what happens when you file a personal injury claim or understands terms like “due care.” With your knowledge and a laptop, you can create articles that will give the common citizen the best answers to burning questions about the law. However, the challenge is knowing how to write about legal topics without sounding too technical or scholarly. For that, here’s a workaround to help you craft digestible legal content:
1. Write for Topics Rather Than Keywords
If you are writing for a legal blog, keep in mind that keywords are not the end-all and be-all of your work. Instead, topics should take priority. Writing for topics helps match the content with what potential clients are searching for far more than just keywords ever could.
When deciding on topics, consider the area or specialty of law you would like to write about. If you are a personal injury attorney like Travis Heller, you may want to focus on certain types of personal injury, you can opt for the following:
- How to select the right personal injury lawyer for you
- Common mistakes to avoid in personal injury lawsuits
- Steps to follow after suffering a personal injury in a car accident
When selecting a topic, consider the kind of value you want to provide. Giving out valuable and actionable information matters more than ranking for high-value keywords.
2. Talk about legal terms
You cannot educate your audience if you are unable to explain complex legal terms in a simpler way. The industry uses Latin terms and phrases that not many may understand. That’s not to mention the highly formal and often complicated wording in legally binding documents. Your audience is probably looking for an easier way to learn about the law, so it won’t help if you write resources in a legalistic way.
When writing about legal terms, try not to include overly detailed descriptions. Instead, provide explanations in a simpler and more straightforward way. If you want to explain what in-camera means, just say that it’s a court procedure where the public and the press are barred from witnessing.
3. Consider Tone and Style
One may think that because the law is a fairly prestigious field, the content you create for the general public. However, the reality of this is quite different. Law firms often outsource their content (such as blog posts) to writers so they can break down the legal jargon into understandable terms.
Whether or not you are writing for a law firm or running a private blog, you need to consider how you present the information you want to write about. Make the content of your articles reader-friendly by breaking long paragraphs into simpler sentences. It also helps to include visual aids such as high-quality photos and graphics.
Writing about the law for the general public is a big challenge, but it doesn’t have to be if you are passionate about teaching others. By following these tips, you can write articles that can help people make better legal decisions.
