i was trying to be ironical

Long-time readers no doubt recognize my flagrant, willful obsession with all things semantic. See Post of April 21, 2005 for an example.

Today, while editing and cite checking an appellate brief, I noticed that the word "cumbersomeness" had somehow found its way into a document meant to, inter alia, simplify things for judges that will no doubt spend five minutes preparing for the case but who will act as though they spent weeks preparing when it comes time for oral argument.

Simplify, simplify, simplify. That's litigation strategery.

Without hesitation, I brought this matter to the attention of the attorney responsible. I admit that I did so with more than a hint of irony. So, his response may have been justified -- "Don't treat me like I'm a Republican!"

Let's invent some new words, people. Irony works well. Even "cumbersomeness" would be good in certain situations. I'll even start you, the reader, off with an example:

The appellant's complex distillation of the case relied upon obfuscates what should be a simple issue - the trial court erred by allowing discovery requests that were notable only for their cumbersomeness.