2 http://abovethelaw.com/2011/12/grammer-pole-of-the-weak-pleaded-v-pled/.
3 Eugene Volokh also has run the Westlaw and Lexis numbers and has confirmed that "pled" gets more hits: http://www.volokh.com/2010/11/12/horace-and-westlaw/.
4 See Evan Jenkins, "Pleaded Guilty: A Modest Plea," in Columbia Journalism Review, at http://www.cjr.org/resources/lc/pleadguilty.php.
5 See World Wide Words Newsletter, Saturday 11 April 2009.
6 See, e.g., Garner's Modern American Usage 682 (third edition, 2011) (favoring "pleaded" and collecting a number of sources that do the same); The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage 263 (first revised edition); The Associated Press Stylebook, 215 (2011).
7 Above the Law's David Lat has made the same point: http://abovethelaw.com/2008/01/a-random-friday-poll-pleaded-or-pled/.
8 For a great discussion of Posner's and Easterbrook's writing, check out Brian J. Paul's "Toward a More Impure Writing Style: The Opinions of Judge Posner and Chief Judge Easterbrook and What the Bar Can Learn From Them." It's available at http://www.icemiller.com/pdf/judge_posner_and_chief_judge_easterbrook_and_what_the_bar can_learn from_them .pdf.
9 "Careful speakers use pleaded." Frank H. Vizetelly, A Deskbook of Errors in English, 167 (1906) (quoted in Garner's Modern American Usage at 682).
10 Readers may register their view on the Daily Report's Web poll at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZF22FCD .
11 We can provide examples of offending opinions and briefs upon request.
Ask the Supremes: A quick Westlaw search reveals that the Supreme Court has used "pleaded" in over 3,000 opinions, "pled" in only 26—and in some of those 26 opinions, the Court was quoting someone else.
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.
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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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