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Diagrammed Text Sometimes traditional callouts from a document are not enough. I can diagram legal text--keeping it verbatim, but laying it out structurally--to help juries and judges follow its logic. For example, which of the following would a jury have an easier time following: this 215-word sentence in ordinary paragraph form . . .
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In consideration of their mutual promises, the parties agree that the survivor of the two of them will, on his or her death, either through the above-mentioned Will or by executing a later Will or Trust Agreement, leave at least the net amount of separate and/or community property received by him or her community property received by him or her from the first one to die as a result of his or her death, whether through a Will, termination of joint tenancy or otherwise, based on the market values on the date of the death of the first to die, or one-half (1/2) of the estate of the second one to die, whichever shall be the lesser, to those beneficiaries of the first one to die and in the proportions and in the manner mentioned in the above-mentioned Will of the first one to die, and that the survivor of the two of them will not make any gifts exceeding TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,000.00) to any individual or organization per calendar year without making gifts in at least the total of said annual gifts to the residual beneficiaries named in the Will of the deceased one of them or their respective issue, unless said beneficiaries agree in writing.
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. . . or the same sentence, verbatim, laid out visually (in this case, with the main thrust of the sentence in bold on the left and the details on the right)?
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