Please mind your language!

By Chinua Asuzu

1. Mesne in mesne profits is pronounced “mean.” Look 👀up this phrase in Black’s Law Dictionary.
2. There’s no such thing as “court marriage.” Courts don’t conduct marriages. Marriages are not celebrated in courtrooms. Perhaps you meant to say statutory marriage?
3. Why do some say “incidence” when they mean “incident”?  “Incident” means” occurrence.” “Incidence” means” rate of occurrence.”
4. Awkward as it may sound, the plural of summons is summonses.
5. When you look 👀 up a word in the dictionary, study all nuances and senses, as well as examples. Don’t quit after finding the meaning or sense you want. Also, check the several parts of speech to which the word could belong. Check an audio dictionary for the pronunciation. If it’s a verb, check whether it’s an intransitive, linking, or transitive verb. Please open your dictionary every day. Then you can fire me!
6.  The correct expression is “As I said,” NOT “Like I said.”
7.  In legal terms, the noun chambers is always pluralized. It’s a law chambers or a judge’s chambers, never “chamber”, even if it’s just one room.
8. Ask and axe are pronounced differently, as “ask” and “aks” respectively. Doesn’t this sound splitting and precise?
9. It’s poor trial practice, approximating malpractice, to address a witness as “Witness.”  Address witnesses by name.
10. Ewe and you are pronounced alike. Check your audio dictionary. Of course, you all know what a ewe is. The correct article is “a”, because though the spelling begins with a vowel, the pronunciation begins with a consonant. In the choice between the two indefinite articles, it’s the pronunciation that counts.