This foreign language even has a name: Legalese. Lawyers are trained to speak and write in Legalese. We are taught that specific “magic words” will achieve a certain result because a prior case was either won because these “magic words” were used, or lost because they were not.
It means communicating information in a clear, concise way that is easily understood. Legal documents do not need to be written in Legalese. There. I said it. A person should not need a lawyer to translate words in a legal document.
There is an alternative to Legalese, and that is plain language. Plain language does not mean “dumbing it down”. It means communicating information in a clear, concise way that is easily understood. Legal documents do not need to be written in Legalese.
There is an alternative to Legalese, and that is plain language. Plain language does not mean “dumbing it down”. It means communicating information in a clear, concise way that is easily understood. Legal documents do not need to be written in Legalese. There. I said it. A person should not need a lawyer to translate words in a legal document.
Legal documents can be so difficult to read and understand, they seem to be written in a foreign language. This foreign language even has a name: Legalese. Lawyers are trained to speak and write in Legalese.
There is an alternative to Legalese, and that is plain language. Plain language does not mean “dumbing it down”. It means communicating information in a clear, concise way that is easily understood. Legal documents do not need to be written in Legalese. There.
Res Ipsa Loquitur is Latin for “the thing speaks for itself.”. It’s a legal principle that refers to situations where it is obvious (and therefore, assumed) an injury was caused by negligence and so there is no further need to prove there has been negligence. The thing speaks for itself.
The better use of a lawyer is to help you understand the risks contained in that legal document and how to manage them. Making the law accessible to everyone means writing legal documents, like contracts, mortgages, insurance policies and legislation, in language that the reader can understand.
In 1992, Ian Waddell, the NDP MP for Port Moody – Coquitlam, introduced a Private Members Bill to create a special committee that would rewrite new laws to be understandable by all people. His bill did not pass. Ironically, it was criticized for being written in the same Legalese he was trying to get rid of.
While there has been some movement, there’s still a way to go. There really is no excuse for Legalese to continue. Rather, writers of legal documents should be striving towards “legal literacy”: making sure people understand words used in the legal context so they know what is expected of them.