… but sometimes they also expect extra sense out of them. The phrase “[t]he parties, who are both law professors and who ought to know better,” which I ran across in a case I read, offers some evidence of that.
UPDATE: Just read a pleading in a case related to this litigation, and had this thought: If two ex-spouses are professors, who share the same last name (say, Jones), having your lawyer’s motions call you “Professor Jones” and your ex “Defendant Jones” might seem a bit too overtly manipulative. Naturally, lawyers often do try to be subtly manipulative in similar ways. But it only works, I think, if you can plausibly claim that you’re just using the natural titles, and it’s just too bad for the other side that your client is a Dr. and the other is a Mr., or some such. Here, I think this sort of plausible deniability was likely missing — but maybe it’s just me.