In 2006, Rogers Communications of Canada lost $2.13 million over a single comma.
The contract gave Bell Aliant the right to terminate — and the placement of one comma decided whether the deal was locked for five years or could be cancelled after one. The regulators read the comma Rogers’ way. Rogers lost. One punctuation mark, two million dollars.
I’ve spent thirty years training lawyers across fifty countries, and I tell every room the same thing: in legal English, punctuation isn’t decoration. It’s liability. A comma can move millions. A misplaced “shall” can sink a merger. The words everyone skims are the words that cost the most.
That’s why I wrote Million Dollar Words — the real cases where one word, one comma, one careless phrase cost somebody millions. So you don’t have to learn it the expensive way.
Available on Amazon: Million Dollar Words
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HMP9XZT1
Dena Falken — J.D., Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America; B.A., American University. Thirty years training legal professionals worldwide.
