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Form

A prototype of an instrument to be employed in a legal transaction or a judicial proceeding that includes the primary essential matters, the appropriate technical phrases or terms, and any additional material required to render it officially accurate, arranged in suitable and systematic order, and conducive to ADAPTATION to the circumstances of the particular case.

The expression form of the statute signifies the language or structure of a statute, and, therefore, the restriction or command that it might include, as used in the phrase in criminal PLEADING "against the form of statute in that case made and provided."

A matter of form, as distinguished from a matter of substance—with respect to pleadings, affidavits, indictments, and other legal instruments—entails the method, style, or form of relating the applicable facts; the selection or arrangement of terms; and other such matters without influencing the essential sufficiency or validity of the instrument, or without reaching the merits.

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