Legal Notices in Newspapers

[dewdrop]

Why do these notices relating to public dancing applications etc use the words "to wit" instead of namely or something to that effect. Is the legal world so inflexible that it cannot change to modern day language?

 

[mathepac]

Legalese and English are not the same - if you think they are, hang out in the Four Courts for a while, eves-dropping.

If lawyers started speaking & writing in English, curmudgeonly judges would be unable to understand them and then where would we be?