"the"

You seem to have a firm grasp of it. What specifically bothers you about it?

Lots of times I am not sure whether I should use "the" or not. For instance, I write "legal counsel believes that this patent is likely to be held unenforceable". The I start struggling between "the legal counsel" and "legal counsel". So on and so forth. I am just wondering if there is any general rule regarding its usage or there is some book or maybe a monograph discussing it.

Many t

Well. A very good question, and I`ll try to answer it! In this sentece you can use "the" if you`re talking of a particualr thing. I don`t actually know the meaning of that word "legal councels", but I`m sure if it`s not a particular thing, you don`t need to use "the' there,ok? Anyway, this is my opinion, but I could be wrong, that`s why be careful....

Legalese has its own peculiarities, and I am no expert. I do, however, watch TV as much as the next pedant and so have heard plenty of courtroom dialogue in which the "the" is dropped, particularly when refering to "councel", "defense", and "witness". From my POV, it all seems pretty idiomatic.