[LINK] [OT] "we say sorry"

[Adam Todd]

At 12:53 13/02/2008, Roger Clarke wrote:
>At 12:21 +1100 13/2/08, Brendan Scott wrote:
>>Listening to the PM on the radio I found his phraseology odd.  I 
>>would have thought we "are" sorry would be more direct and natural. 
>>I recall reading somewhere that Graham Freudenberg et al have 
>>recently been lamenting the decline of public rhetoric.
>
>A QC had advised that 'we are sorry' created greater risk of a 
>successful lawsuit for a billion-dollar fund than 'we say sorry'.

I'd have thought "We say sorry" would place the liability jointly and 
severally, rather than "we are sorry" which would narrow the 
liability to the parties responsible at the time.

I can only go on 6 years of every level of court experience where 
such tactile use of words has had very implicated meanings and harped 
on to their nth degree.