A court ruling was delivered

A court ruling was delivered not acknowledging the custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.


Does the above sentence read well?

If not, how about these two?

A court delivered a ruling not acknowledging the custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.

A court delivered a ruling that does not acknowledge the custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.


Also, I want to know if putting the indefinite article "a" in front of court is grammatical.

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rainous

A court ruling was delivered not acknowledging the custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.


Does the above sentence read well? No, not really.
How about: The court ruled to deny custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation. or A court ruling denied custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.


Also, I want to know if putting the indefinite article "a" in front of court is grammatical. In the second example above, yes.

Thanks

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You're welcome:-) !
John

I appreciate your suggestions.

I am trying to come up with a sentence I can start a legal news article with, a sentence that can
convey the nuance that this is a rather noteworthy ruling that has set a legal precedent.

Would there be more indirect way of introducing the ruling?

I think I want to start with "The court delivered a decision..." or something similar to that and then have it followed by the description of the decision.

Would someone help me flesh that out?

Thanks for your time.

OK, well, this is getting clearer.

A news article is reported speech.

The case to which the decision applies was named, what? Something like Smith versus Smith?

I would start by quoting the case then follow by reporting the outcome.

In Smith vs. Smith, the court delivered a decision..... (but remember, reported speech favors brevity). So, it might be better to say "In Smith vs. Smith, the court decided..."

John

If I wanted to keep the case to which the ruling was applied anonymous,
would the following rewrite do the trick?

In a court decision delivered recently, the court denied the custody and parental rights of a father who interfered with court-ordered maternal visitation.

If you're doing a news article, keep boiling down and boiling down until you're left with only the essential concepts:

court decision
father interfered
mother's visitation
lost custody and parental rights

Lose the words that don't help: delivered a decision, etc.

Pick the shortest, punchiest words you can: Denied, lost, revoked not "refused to acknowledge." Mother, not maternal.

Then string them grammatically.

A recent court decision revoked a father's custody and parental rights for interfering with the mother's court-ordered visitation.

Make it a game to remove as many words as you can and still not lose any essential information.

Barb has said it best:
A recent court decision revoked a father's custody and parental rights for interfering with the mother's court-ordered visitation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barb_D

A recent court decision revoked a father's custody and parental rights for interfering with the mother's court-ordered visitation.

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I feel refined...