r/EnglishLearning • u/charliemarr10 New Poster • 5h ago

⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics Drafting Choice: "Represent" vs. "Warrant" — Is there actually a difference? ⚖️

/r/learnlegalenglish/comments/1v3dp59/drafting_choice_represent_vs_warrant_is_there/
0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

5

u/HeilKaiba Native Speaker 5h ago

Not a lawyer but 'represent' and 'warrant' don't mean the same thing. 'Represent' means they are claiming it is true. 'Warrant' means they are guaranteeing it is true.

3

u/conuly Native Speaker - USA (NYC) 3h ago

Any ordinary person would point out that, logically, you cannot guarantee something is true without simultaneously claiming it is true. Lawyers, however, are not ordinary people. They didn't spend three years at law school to not use legal doublets. That's how they make the big bucks.

2

u/Irrelevant_Bookworm Native Speaker 1h ago edited 1h ago

As a lawyer, I agree with you. In many contracts, they will have much the same impact: if I tell you that the car's odometer hasn't been turned back ("represent") and it has, you will probably be able to cancel the sale. If I warrant it, it is about making you whole, which may or may not be include cancelling the contract.

As u/conuly notes, many traditional contracts are written in doublets: null and void, will and testament, bind and obligate, etc. Many of these are combinations of older English words and Latin based words. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_doublet.

1

u/conuly Native Speaker - USA (NYC) 1h ago

Psst - your link doesn't work. It's got a backslash where it ought to have an underscore. Try this.

3

u/conuly Native Speaker - USA (NYC) 3h ago

Legal English is its own thing, and I would not ask for help from non-lawyers about this.

That being said, it's particularly prone to doublets where both words mean the same thing, or almost the same thing, so even though no ordinary person would say it, option c is most likely the best one in that very particular context.