RE: Judgement vs judgment

Oxford Dictionaries says the following on this:

" In British English the normal spelling in general contexts is judgement. However, the spelling judgment is conventional in legal contexts, and in North American English."

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/judgement

Backing up your assertion that legal usage is "judgment" in British English.

cheers

Mark

From: legaldocml@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:legaldocml@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Sperberg, Roger (LNG-NYC)
Sent: 20 February 2013 16:58
To: legaldocml@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [legaldocml] Judgement vs judgment

My research into the best spelling for judgement/judgment was brief and inconclusive.

American spelling is unambiguously judgment, following Noah Webster’s dictum of dropping a final silent “e” before adding a suffix. Eg, judge, judging, judgment. Cache, caching. Etc.

The OED accepts both spellings and lists judgement as the preferred spelling.

The Cambridge dictionary accepts both spellings and lists judgment as the preferred spelling.

Fowler and the OED seem to prefer judgement because of the long history of such spelling in religious material. However, in my brief investigation almost every citation in the OED since 1800 dealing with legal matters uses judgment.

Since we are using British spelling, I would like to see some something more definitive than my dip into the OED on whether legal usage really is judgment. But British usage doesn’t seem definitively on the side of judgement over judgment.

Roger Sperberg

973-200-4224 primary

roger.sperberg@lexisnexis.com

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