20:25 Jan 28 

but you have more text than I do.

19:52 Jan 28 

apologies if I imputed imputation! thing is, the more I look at that sentence the more I'm convinced that the "raisonnement" was something that, according to the defence, *should* have gone on before anyone entered the courtroom... because as defending counsel says, "despite the fact that they cannot have been unaware of...", so we are really talking about an alleged wilful decision by the plaintiffs to present an inordinate claim, despite legal advice to the contrary. Presented to them rationally, by their own counsel. Anyway, enough.

19:41 Jan 28 

I am not imputing any ignorance to you. I am suggesting the verb used frequently in English to describe how lawyers put forward their cases. It's now up to you to choose whether to accept it or reject.

19:38 Jan 28 

Navarre legal dictionary has the following for "argue": discuter, débattre, soutenir, plaider. So it is perhaps not totally justified to attribute to me ignorance of this EN verb in a legal context. The question is, does it fit "raisonner", and in this context? And if you look at the sentence you are likely to find that the putative "raisonnement" about which defending counsel is speculating is more likely to be recommended between the plaintiffs and their counsel than between their counsel and the court.

19:31 Jan 28 

have just posted 5 refs for "argue" i.e. a lawyer "argues" his/her case
There are hundreds of such refs on the web. It's for you to choose, asker.

19:16 Jan 28 

... trouble is "justify" doesn't match any French definitions... and I opine that this is not specifically legal language, unless anyone can produce a decent reference proving the contrary...

08:30 Jan 27 

yes, this seems good to me. However, the Robert definition of the transitive direct meaning of "raisonner" (categorised at "Littér." by the way) is "Faire un objet de raisonnement; examiner par la raison". Since there is a perfectly adequate verb in FR, "justifier", I suggest the drafter is stressing the use of "raison" in this process. PS 2 people have said this should be "non-Pro" but use of "raisonner" in a transitive sense is by no means straightforward and hence I think this suggestion is rather silly.

13:19 Jan 26 

that lawyers don't argue?