When I first enrolled in law school, I struggled
putting up with professors, classmates, and books that spoke a strange
Jurassic-sounding language—legalese. I had been with the private sector all my
life, ten years of which in the banking industry, and a short stint in the
insurance industry as a self-employed, and I have not been a fan of this
language, which I occasionally bumped into in my readings. I thought why the heck
would you speak and write differently from how you would otherwise casually
talk?
The point in both is clarity. Unless you purposely
want to muddle your statement, you would use plain English. Since Freshman I
have been resisting this pervasive persistence in using a language that not
only had lost its currency, but has been a source of confusion and more
controversy than resolution.
Sadly, while the Court has acknowledged the advantage
in using plain English, its decisions promulgated contemporaneous to extolling
plain English, prove it’s not that ready to abandon legalese, and is merely
paying the audience some lip service.
But I was unfazed, I continued to refuse to talk and
write like I had dinosaurs around me. I knew it was a gambit. Many still blindly
believe that legalese identifies its users with the law, and those who believe
otherwise fall out of favor with legal authorities, say the Bar Examiners in
bar examinations. To them if you do legalese, you evince show admirable esprit
de corps.
I always thought not. I think legalese are from a long
bygone era, and has no place in modern legal society. Those who think they can
impress their clients with legalese, translating to fatter billing,
underestimate their own clients. Average-educated clients don’t care about and
don’t look for legalese, but are comfortable with lawyers who speak and write
plain English because they understand what the lawyers are saying to the court,
in their behalf.
Think about it, would you be comfortable and happy or
would you instead be concerned if your lawyer talked in court in your behalf,
and finished without you understanding what he said? What more you if you
caught a glimpse of the judge looking just as confused? Can you imagine the
torment of tirelessly wondering how you fared in court simply because your
lawyer didn’t speak . . . plain English?
I dare to think more. I think sophisticated clients
know a lousy lawyer when they see one. And clients see them often in
legalese-tongued acts. If I were a client, I would take legalese as a lawyer’s
ploy to hide his unpreparedness and incompetence. Why not come clean and plain?
You certainly don’t want to get into costly litigation over a confused word or
term simply because your lawyer could not resist his worn-out belief that
legalese impresses.
One client said to an ipleader (what I call a lawyer who
plain-english-advocate)
“I appreciate it that you talk in a way that I understand, and I am sure the
judge understood, as well.”
Another recounted “I felt insulted that my lawyer
talked in court in hifalutin garbage, not because I didn’t understand, but
because I knew he was talking nonsense. I fired him before he could explain.”
Despite the fact that law books, the internet legal
vastness, and the practice overflow with legalese I strived to find like-minded
individuals, and I did find them. Below, I share some of what they had to say
about plain English.
To many of them, Bryan A. Garner is a common hero, but I have yet to get
my hands on his book.
One of my favorites is a comment to a
post:
Re: silly antiquated English pleading —I gained
incredible respect for a (female) probate commissioner I met last summer, who
said flatly, “no one is going to come or pray on any of
my paperwork.”
Here is more, and with links to their websites:
"Legal Writing:Ditch“Here-and-There Words”" by Andy Mergendahl as carried in an article “Doclients expect legalese, and how should you handle it?” by Matthew
Salzwedel.
“Garner’sList of Banned Words and Phrases (and one ofmy own)” by Matthew Salzwedel.
"50Plain-Language Substitutions for Wordy Phrases" by Daily Wrtiting Tips.
“Simple,concise, direct: Pleading in plain English” by Raymond Ward
More useful sites, and your
own:
"Capitalizationin Briefs to a Trial Court" by Melissa L. Greipp
"Rule on Writing Numbers" by Jane Stauss+.
"Please stop capitalizing every other word" by Sam Glover.
Enjoy Reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment