Perhaps the language of lawyers is so convoluted simply because of the conservatism of the profession and its veneration of history and tradition. To some extent, legal English is indeed a product of its history.
Full Answer
There is a joke about why lawyers use complicated language, sometimes called legalese: So they can charge higher fees. There may be a little bit of truth in that, but the full answer is, well, more complicated. One of the reasons the law is often written in complicated or hard-to-understand language is because of the way law develops.
One of the key skills for these professionals is understanding common legal terms. When working alongside a companyâs lawyers, counsel may introduce a legal term or concept in a meeting that, based on their legal training, is âcommonâ to them. That same term, however, might be foreign to the average industry professional.
These uses of words often provide shortcuts for lawyers, but they can make the law sound confusing and complicated to a nonlawyer. Legal movies and television can use these words to great affect. A memorable scene from "Legally Blonde" is a great example of this.
The lawyer then has to write more into the law or document to guard against these possible future misinterpretations. As words and phrases are misinterpreted in laws and documents, over time, lawyers will include all the possible guards against all the possible misinterpretations that exist or might exist in the future.
One of the reasons the law is often written in complicated or hard-to-understand language is because of the way law develops .
A good lawyer who is writing a law or other legal document will try to think of every possible way the document could be misinterpreted in the future. The lawyer then has to write more into the law or document to guard against these possible future misinterpretations.
Another reason the law is so complicated is that sometimes lawyers will disagree about what a word or phrase means . If a word or phrase or phrase can be interpreted in more than one way, ...
Finally, another reason the law is so complicated, especially in criminal law, is because of a little thing called the Constitution. The Due Process Clause of the Constitution requires fundamental fairness. This means that a criminal defendant must be put on notice of possible crimes he may commit. This, in turn, means that criminal laws cannot be ...
In everyday, to continue something means to keep going. But in court, to continue something means to put it off for another day or time.
Because the âprofitsâ definition of âproceedsâ is always more defendant-friendly than the âreceiptsâ definition, the rule of lenity dictates that it should be adopted. So, if Congress wanted to include both receipts and profits in its definition of proceeds, it would have to amend the law to include those specific terms.
English was often used by regular people as the vernacular, but Latin and French were the âprestigiousâ languages used in the government and the court systems. If you were to attend a trial in the 16th century, you would have heard a combination of Law Latin and Law French.
Because of how specific legal language became, it was impossible to disentangle English law from Latin and French. You wouldâve had to create a whole new vocabulary, which lawyers set in their ways werenât too keen on. Looking at lawyer jargon today, you can clearly see how French and Latin are still in constant use.
Culprit â the guilty party. The word is an abbreviation of culpable: prest, which is the start of a phrase that would be said by the prosecutor at the beginning of a trial: Culpable: prest dâaverrer nostre bille (âGuilty: ready to present our caseâ).
Defendant â in a trial, the defendant is the person who is being charged in a case. This word was borrowed from French, but can be traced all the way back to Latin. De facto/De jure â these two phrases mean âin factâ and âin law,â respectively.
The simplest version of language history would show that in the past 2,000 years, the piece of land we now call England went through three major linguistic eras. First comes Latin, which was brought to the country by Roman invaders during the first century CE. Then, a millennium later, the Normans took over the country and brought their French ...
Testimony â from the Old French testimonie, a testimony is a statement given to a court of law, which can be either spoken or written. Despite some joke etymology rumors, the word has nothing to do with the male genitalia. Verdict â the final decision in the case, made by the jury.
To use a language example, the official language of England is de jure English, because thereâs a national law to make it so. In contrast, the official language of the United States is de facto English because, while itâs not written into law, English is used as any official language would be.
Legal terminology refers to a set of technical words and phrases that legal regulations and federal bodies use to make a statement. Legal terms convey lawful doctrines in an ordinance, civil lawsuits, business or real estate contracts, and in a legal precedent.
A lawyer must turn to authentic sources when learning legal jargon. There are a host of law books that teach legal vocabulary. However, for understanding basic legal terms, lawyers need to look at the following sources.
The following are law-related terminologies and common legal phrases that every lawyer needs to know.
These are the 10 most common legal terms that the lawyers need to know before hitting the courtroom. These terminologies will help them decode a legal statement and conduct legal proceedings.
Many attorneys bill by the hour, so if you can interact with them quickly and clearly, you can save your organization, and yourself, money.â. By learning common legal terms, you can execute your professional duties with confidence in your own expertise. While earning an advanced degree in legal studies is one way to improve your legal knowledge, ...
Civil Law: This is a generic term for non-criminal law as it applies to settling disputes between private citizens or organizations. Civil lawsuits might be about negligence, a breach of a contract, or a land dispute between neighbors.
Legal Terms in Business. Action: An action is a lawsuit in which a party or parties sue one another. A cause of action is the basis of a lawsuit, such as fraud, breach of contract, or negligence.
Legal Terms in Intellectual Property (IP) IP: IP refers to tangible or intangible personal property that is created through the intellectual efforts of its creators. Trade Secret: Trade secret law protects any company information not âcommonly knownâ which the company has taken âreasonable stepsâ to keep in confidence.
Injunction: An injunction is a court order compelling a party to act or to refrain from a certain act, under the threat of civil or criminal penalties .