Question

• What does it mean to write a “plain legal language” contract?

• What is the main argument being made today to move toward using “plain legal language” in contracts?

• What arguments have been made against the utilization of “plain legal language”?

• Does “plain language” mean “simplified language”? Why or why not?

• What is your position with regard to this issue?

Answer 1

1. Meaning of plain legal language:- also referred to as plain English

Clarity, conciseness, and precision

The “traditional style” of legal writing is notorious for its unnecessarily complex words, legal jargon, and convoluted sentences that can obscure meaning and create ambiguity.

to overcome all these doubts and ambiguity - clear crisp and to the point writing language- called as a plain legal language.

The goal of plain language is to express precisely a communication with clarity and conciseness so that it is easily read and understood by its intended audience. Therefore, plain language drafters avoid verbosity, pretentious language, and tortuous sentence structures.

2. The main argument made to move towards Plain Legal Language was:-

Government officials were among the first to promote the use of plain language. The objective was to make the law more understandable to the public and, by doing so, provide more efficient services and cut costs. These efforts have resulted in significant successes.

Judge Learned Hand once stated, “The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it.

To avoid all these unnecessary doubts, conflicts and to improve the understandability of law, the plain language was adopted for framing legal contracts and laws.

3.Arguments made against the Plain Legal language.

the traditional style over plain language because it communicates a lawyerly tone that seems more impressive,

and some lawyers are too busy to do otherwise

and another argument was

While drafting in plain language might appear easy, it takes time and effort to communicate complex ideas clearly, concisely, and precisely. may involve more pay-offs and cost.

4. Does “plain language” mean “simplified language”? Why or why not?

- The plain language referred to as plain English- not simplified language.

is not about oversimplifying communications or writing in a lackluster style.

express precisely a communication with clarity and conciseness.

it uses these principles which makes it easy to read and understand.

• Reduce sentence length. For long sentences (e.g., exceeding 24 words) divide into shorter sentences or, in the case of a series or list, use tabulation.
• Prefer active voice over passive voice.
• Eliminate pretentious legal language (including Latin expressions) when a simple word or phrase will do.
• Remove redundancies (such as any and all; free and clear).
• Reduce nominalizations.

5. Position to this regard.

- Great initiative was taken by lawmakers to overcome the doubts and ambiguities while reading and understanding the law for any person not from a law background.