Law Dictionary

You need a good Law Dictionary to properly learn the law.

In 2021 we can only make one recommendation for a law dictionary. Dean’s Law Dictionary is it. No one even comes close to matching its content.

For law students it means all the exam writing definitions you need and most importantly it has all the idiomatic law you need to know all in one place and not spread out over 10-15 cases given to you in piecemeal fashion. After briefing all the cases in a casebook you have to spend countless hours trying to make sense of everything that was given to you a small bit at a time. Just look up the term in Dean’s and it is all there. It is all authoritative with 100,000’s of case cites.

The law is all technical definitions. The basis for any good grade on any law school exam is knowing the technical definitions. The same is true for any practicing attorney. Issue spotting is dependent on how much law you have memorized before you take any exam. Without a knowledge and mastery of the key definitions you will be both a lousy lawyer and a lousy law student. What is even more important is that you have a law dictionary that properly defines those difficult to understand idiomatic concepts. You will need a good law dictionary to make sure that you understand all the definitions.

Watch the video and take an hour to do a complete comparison. It will be the most valuable hour you ever spend as the dividends from it will pay you over and over and over again and again…you can’t get good grades in law school without a good law dictionary.

We did the comparison and were absolutely shocked at the results. It explains events that happened to us in law school where we were told to buy Black’s and we used it once or twice never to look at it again our entire time at law school. Don’t make this same mistake, it will cost you dearly.  

Black’s Law Dictionary is printed and obsolete.

Printed dictionaries such as Black’s Law Dictionary used to be the standard. No longer. You can’t easily search, copy or paste the material you need. Further their definitions of the idiomatic concepts fall far short of what is necessary to understand the law.

Black’s Law Dictionary is heavy and you will have to lug it around to all your classes each and every day. Even if you get the student version you will still have to carry it around with your lap top, your other casebooks, your law outline and flash card or study guide for each course. Who needs all that aggravation. But let’s face it if you need to lose a few, and who doesn’t, such exercise might prove helpful. Plus, you have to wonder why they are charging $90 or so for a printed product.

Black’s Law Dictionary is a hoax???

This article was printed May 28th 2003.

Montreal, PQ (Reuters) – Sarah Medhurst (nee Black) shocked journalists and legal scholars at a press conference held at the Black family estate Monday when she revealed that Black’s Law Dictionary, a highly regarded legal reference text, was originally written as a joke by her eccentric great grandfather Henry Campbell Black.

Medhurst appeared unapologetic, suggesting that the Black family had never tried very hard to keep it a secret. “Have any of you actually taken the time to read it?” she asked, flipping open the renowned text; “Look at page 840 for instance. ‘John-a-Nokes’? Or how about page 347? ‘Correality’ the quality or state of being correal.” She then cast a challenging look around the room.

Medhurst admitted that the entire Black family has participated in the century-long ruse, working together to generate content for the ever-expanding text. She credits her Uncle Bertrand with developing one of their most successful filler techniques: “We created more than 30 new entries just by using the word ‘actual’. Actual agency – see agency. Actual allegiance – see allegiance. Actual authority – see authority. And on and on – you get the idea.”

Medhurst admits that the family started to get lazy in later editions, at times resorting to stealing terms from other dictionaries. “I remember one time my brother pulled ‘Le Roi’ (literally: “the king”) right out of his French-English dictionary to meet the deadline for the 5th edition while on a three-week ski trip in the French Alps.” She claims the ploy has been used sparingly, however, and that the family put a stop to the practice when her brother started bringing the Official Scrabble Dictionary to editorial meetings.

Henry Campbell Black had never intended – or even imagined – that his dictionary would become the authoritative source for legal terminology. “My great granddad had actually written the text for an upcoming firm skit night”, Medhurst explains. “It was his way of showing how convoluted and, well, pompous the legal profession had become.” The dictionary became an instant hit, however, and Henry Black’s comedic intentions went unnoticed. When the money started to roll in, Black elected to pursue a highly lucrative career in legal publishing instead of becoming a marginally talented prop comic.

When asked why the family is revealing the fake after all this time, Medhurst stated that they had grown tired of living a lie, and were genuinely concerned that the universally accepted legal lexicon “is actually just a bunch of made-up gibberish.” The family is asking that lawyers and students alike immediately dispose of any editions of Black’s Law Dictionary into the nearest trash receptacle or recycle bin.

West Group, the current publisher of Black’s law dictionary, could not be reached for comment.

Get a good Digital legal Dictionary.

Black’s is printed and a hoax. Forget printed books and materials. You are in the 21st Century and this is the digital age. If you don’t know how to use a computer you better learn. If you don’t type that fast or that well, you better learn. If you don’t have a lap top to take to class you better get one and soon. If you are a good law student you will want to make a custom flash card set and a custom law outline for each class you take. Because it is in a printed format it is worthless to you because you will have to spend 100’s of hours just retyping information into your law outline and your flash card set. What do you want to be doing, retyping or spending your valuable time studying and memorizing the law and getting ready for exams by practicing your exam writing?

Dean’s Law Dictionary is a digital product.

We feel strongly that Dean’s Law Dictionary is the best law dictionary ever made. It is easily 85 times larger than any printed dictionary and has all the advantages of being digital (easy look up, copy, paste, annual upgrades, and search capabilities with over 280,000 pages of reference material). With a few key strokes and you are good to go. It costs less than what the leading printed law dictionary costs and you can get annual upgrades for free each year for 3 years. If you have your laptop you have your law dictionary with you at all times.

Dean’s law dictionary has all the key elements of the law you must memorize for exam writing. Plus, we looked at 34 key idiomatic definitions involving such concepts as negligence, nuisance, insanity, and felony murder. We were actually able to learn all the concepts and embarrassed when we realized very quickly how much law we didn’t actually know.

You can easily download Dean’s Law Dictionary for a free trial. Further, more and more noted experts in the field are recognizing Dean’s Law Dictionary. Noted author Thomas F. Goldman and Chair of the American Association for Paralegal Education (AAfPE) Technology Task Force recently stated at a technology conference on the law and technology:

“As Chair of the AAfPE Technology Task Force I am constantly looking for technology tools to enhance the learning experience of paralegal students in our member institutions. Unlike other legal dictionaries that are provided in electronic form, Dean’s Law Dictionary allows the students to learn the terms by seeing them as used by the courts in the context of court opinions, not as static definitions. In addition to enhancing the student ability to retain the information, it allows the students to see the dynamic nature of the use of legal specific terminology and explore the use by the courts and the legal community. For my students, what had been boring legal terminology exercises, became an opportunity to discuss concepts and cases that resulted in better recognition of the terminology in later work and in testing.”

Thomas F. Goldman has authored the following books. (Technology in the Law Office, 1/e Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, Thomas F. Goldman 2007, The Paralegal Professional Classroom Video Series, Pearson Prentice Hall, Thomas F. Goldman, Deborah Orlik, Nancy Wagner , The Paralegal Professional, 2/e Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, Thomas F. Goldman and Henry Cheeseman, 2007, The Paralegal Professional, 1/e, Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, Thomas F. Goldman and Henry Cheeseman, 2002 , Accounting and Taxation for Paralegals, 1/e, Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, Computer Explorations for Business, Gregg Division, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Thomas F. Goldman with Sheila Whitney Furjanic. Electronic Delivery of Supplemental Readings in Paralegal Courses at Bucks County Community College, The Paralegal Educator, American Association for Paralegal Education Volume 13, Number 4, December, 1999.)

Watch this video and do the comparison. Dean’s is amazing and radically different.

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