Legal Commentary

Paul has written before, here at Prawfs, about the "Yale 'So'".  Because I am, as a rule, slow to pick up on things, I am just now starting to notice (what strikes me as) the pandemic-speed spread of the use by legal scholars, and also entry-level candidates, of the word "story" to replace, say, "account".  We note, often, that "there is a story [to the effect that X]" instead of "One could [or even 'I would'] argue [that X]."

My sense is that the turn-to-the-"story" started -- or Patient Zero emerged from -- the empirical-studies context, but I could be wrong.  Like any tic, I suppose "story" could be over- or mis-used (just like endless parentheticals can be misused.  Oops.) but, I have to say, I kind of like this one.  So (sorry Paul), . . . what's the story?