In this article, you`ll learn about the importance of legal language, reasons to avoid legal language, and drafting best practices for your legal policies. Merriam-Webster defines “legal language” as “the language used by lawyers that is difficult for most people to understand; legalese. 1 The Oxford Guide to Plain English describes it a little differently: artistic terms are inevitable, but you should make an effort to cleanse your writing of all legal German. Here are some examples of words and phrases that should be eliminated: Each profession has its own jargon, but most professions rely on modern English as a basis. Lawyers specializing in real estate and other transactions, those who draft legal documents, seem to be the exception. This is a strange phenomenon because most litigants, those lawyers who only write for other lawyers (i.e. judges), seem to have little difficulty writing in modern English. However, most lawyers who specialize in real estate and other transactions whose work product includes non-lawyer parties usually have difficulty expressing their thoughts in modern English. Instead, they rely on a strange language called “legal language” to get their message across. When customers see legal language in your business policies, they may feel confused, offended, or simply reluctant to have a relationship with your business. All of these feelings make customers less inclined to make a purchase or sign up for membership. Use plain language instead of legal language to make users happy and attract more customers. The courts have criticized the use of legal language.8 Is there a downside to using such language? While ordinary people who are not represented by a lawyer must be bound by legal instruments that are not otherwise decipherable in English, the courts have refused to apply such agreements to the detriment of authors.9 This Economist blog explains the problem of frontloading a sentence when it comes to complicated legal concepts. The blog focuses on a key problem in legal writing: that the concepts you write about are so complex that you need to write simply, directly, and clearly to make it easier for the reader to understand.
Adding complexity to your writing – legal language – exponentially increases the chances that the parties (or the judge) will miss your point. Eliminate strings of prepositional phrases such as “of” or “of”. Replace the prepositional sentence with an apostrophe. The limitation of liability clause has gone from more than 140 words entirely in capital letters to only 66 words of plain text. The compensation clause is now a sentence of 41 words, compared to more than 150. The word “compensation” – which is itself legal – is not even used. Legal language is being used by companies in the hope that it will make their policies more legally sound. However, since few users are familiar with legal language, too much of it in your legal policies is likely to harm your business. If a customer comes back to you and says, “We don`t understand that term in your contract,” then you have a red flag to rewrite that term. Often, legal language is the product of how lawyers were trained to write. The examples above show that it is possible to replace the legal language of your policies with simple language. In addition, legal language makes users feel alienated, as most people outside the legal profession are not familiar with legal jargon.
It may seem far-fetched. However, I think it`s actually possible – as a more than three-year effort to promote plain text contracts in GE Aviation`s digital services business has shown. Since the beginning of this initiative in 2014, this entity has signed more than 100 such contracts. These agreements took 60% less time to negotiate than their previous legal versions. Some clients have even signed plain language contracts without a single change. Customer feedback has always been positive, and there has not been a single dispute between customers over the wording of a contract in plain language. The best course of action is to ensure that all parties work with the same key definitions of industry-specific jargon and legal language. As part of efforts to update and modernize California`s 29 codes, which contain more than 155,000 laws, the Office of the Legislative Counsel is removing “legal language” from these legal provisions. What do we mean by legal language? Their policies are also for your protection.
For example, terms and conditions help protect your website`s rights and determine how users can interact with your properties. If your terms and conditions are full of legal language, your users won`t understand them and won`t be able to follow your rules.