Brian Boone is a senior litigation associate at Alston & Bird and, as he likes to say it, is a more handsome, conservative John Chandler. John is a Democrat. Brian is a Republican. Both love crack writing.
John Chandler is a senior litigation partner at King & Spalding and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Click here to take a Daily Report survey about your preference: "pled" or "pleaded."
As lawyers, we get to debate some of the most pressing questions of our time: The limits of Congress's commerce power. The reach of the Due Process Clause. "Pleaded" versus "pled."
Yes, you read that right: There is a bitter, friend-splitting debate raging among lawyers about whether to use "pleaded" or "pled." (For our part, we almost ended up at Weehawken over the row.) Both words get a lot of play in legal writing. We think that it's time for one usage to rule them all—but we disagree about which word to send to the dustbin. Chandler always uses "pled." Boone always uses "pleaded." The gloves are off.
But first, some context. We (Chandler and Boone) appreciate good writing, including a conversational tone. We both detest legalese—our jargon detectors go off when we see "herein," "instant case," or "prior to." Neither of us starts sentences with "However"—"But" is better. But on pleaded-pled we disagree.
Here are our competing views:
Chandler's view
(The minority view—or as Boone calls it, the "you've-watched-too-many-episodes-of-Law & Order" view):
Use "pled." Boone needs to get out more—"pleaded" may seem fine on paper, but lawyers chuck the word when they head to court. A lawyer arguing a motion to dismiss doesn't say, "They haven't pleaded scienter." He says, "They haven't pled scienter."
I know, I know: Bryan Garner says that "pleaded" is the "predominant form in American English."1 But does the guy listen to people talk? Nobody says "pleaded." Everybody says "pled"—and not just the good folks on Law & Order. "Pled" just sounds better to the ear.
Twice, legal tabloid/blog Above the Law has asked its readers which they prefer—"pleaded" or "pled."2 Twice, strong majorities chose "pled." Check Westlaw or Lexis, and you'll find that judges use "pled" more often than "pleaded."3
Moreover, it's not like "pled" is the legal-writing equivalent of texting's "OMG"—heck, even Edmund Spenser used "pled" way back in 1596.4 And Michael Quinion, the famous British etymologist and writer who runs the website World Wide Words, describes "pled" as the American strong-verb form of the past tense of "to plead."5
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Transaction7
The correct past perfect in legal usage is, of course, plud. I learned that from the same law professor who taught us "he slud off."
The ultimate authority, MS Word spell check,, will accept either "pled" or "pleaded" without hesitation, so either must be correct.
My best recollection from my years of wide-rangingcivil and criminal practice, including appeals, leaves me with the impression that, at least where I have been, one is more likely to hear "he pled guilty" but that a case is or is not "well-pleaded."
Now will somebody please explain to me how and when the rules of English usage and grammar changes so radically that, contrary to the rule we leanred against split infinitives, the form "to not go" has become common even among writers and publications I wold expect to get it right. With a tricky vision condition that makes proofreading practically impossible, I use spell-check, with certain adjustments, but long ago turned off its grammar and syntax checker because it was always trying to get me to use wildly illiterate phrasing that didn't make any sense.
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DonJ
Pled is the preferred use of past tense of plead in legal jargon. In other contexts, (e.g She said "He pleaded with me not to leave him") , pleaded works nicely.
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Jurisprude
I readed this whilst I dranked my coffee.
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John Bramfeld
Get attorneys to quit saying "in regards to" and you will have accomplished something worthwhile.
as regards
best regards
in regard to
better yet: regarding
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Albert Davenport
What about differing connotations? Doesn't pleaded sound more plaintive than pled? As in "She pleaded with him not to go." Pled, on the other hand, sounds more succinctly businesslike shifting emphasis to the rest of the sentence. Pleaded draws attention. It's almost two syllables of whining.
If you subscribe to this subtext approach, the usage would change depending on the desired spin.
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