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. Legal language is also often found in the arguments of lawyers in the courtroom. This is often because they need to be as specific as possible when making arguments. When it comes to jury trials, some lawyers may use legal language to leave parts of their opponents` arguments to interpretation, which improves their chances of winning the case. Here are three main reasons why you should refrain from using legal language when creating your legal and business policies. In his eyes, Washington was dominated by lawyers who all spoke incomprehensible legal German — or, as Keynes put it, “Cherokee.” If you need help understanding the legal language or if you need a document creation with the language included, it is best to contact a contract lawyer. 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. One of the most important tasks of a lawyer is precision and accuracy. Language is no exception.
While there is a more widely used language that could be used to communicate a point, that is not the purpose of a lawyer when using legal language. Overall, legal language is useful in many scenarios. It allows lawyers to speak as effectively as possible and allows them to communicate their views with each other and with the judge in a way that is easy to understand in legal society. It is generally acceptable for lawyers to use legal language when it comes to contracts. However, the use of legal language is one of the reasons why so many people need to hire lawyers to help them review and revise contracts. Legal language can quickly become confusing for someone who isn`t a lawyer, so hiring special expertise is a great way to avoid this. The language of the American legal system has been heavily influenced by Latin. As a result, many Latin terms taken from their original text have been translated into a language commonly used by lawyers called the legal language. But that doesn`t have to be the case. The use of legal language is only one way to achieve this. Simply citing previous decisions is a great alternative for using legal language.
It is also more descriptive and allows a more direct comparison with the case to which a lawyer wants to refer. 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. Here is an article where you can find more examples of legal language. The most common place where you can find legal language is in a contract. Indeed, when contract lawyers draft a contract, they may find it necessary to use the terminology because there is no better word to use. Another important thing to keep in mind is that many terms in legal language have a whole history of the law to support them. Thus, when certain words are used, the resulting legal implications can be very different.
Use plain language instead of legal language to make users happy and attract more customers. 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. While legal language can be useful in situations like legal drafting, it`s not always the best choice lawyers can use for the language. As it is generally not understood, there could be communication problems between lawyers and clients. Instead, they aim to convey their point of view in the most effective and direct way. The easiest way to achieve this in many cases is to use legal language. This is natural if the person they are communicating with knows the terminology.
Most of the time, political conversation becomes the legal language about free speech and their discourse is important, but we need to change and understand the real cost of disinformation. Break down complex business or legal processes into step-by-step lists and define unusual terms. Learn more about why lawyers use legal language by reading this article. Similarly, Canada`s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) requires organizations to be open to the public about their data handling practices, which means that privacy policies must be clear and free of legal text. Some people argue that legal language is not necessary at all. While legal language may be useful for accuracy in some scenarios, it is also possible that better use of the typical English language is sufficient. Instead of using a crutch, lawyers could work to communicate more effectively by better organizing their thoughts. In addition, legal language makes users feel alienated, as most people outside the legal profession are not familiar with legal jargon. Although there has been a movement towards the use of pure or simple English, legal language persists in the legal field. This is often attributed to lawyers who believe that legal language increases the prestige of legal jobs, impresses clients, and protects market demand for legal services.
Proponents of legal language also believe that it allows for greater precision in legal drafting. The formation and use of model contracts and model documents promote legal language, as there is no economic value in rewriting these models. If users have trouble understanding your policies because there is too much legal language, it can have consequences for your business. Here`s another legal example found in an example of a limitation of liability clause: TurboTax`s current user agreement, which still includes an arbitration clause, includes more than 15,000 words of dense legal German. To help you get a better example of what legal language is, here are some examples: Legal language in contracts allows lawyers to communicate as clearly as possible to debate misunderstandings, confusion, or something like that. Since contracts are binding legal agreements that set the tone for litigation, it always makes sense for lawyers to use legal language instead of standard language for ultimate accuracy. Legal language informally refers to the terminology and specialized formulations used by people in the legal field and in legal documents. Legal language is notoriously difficult for the public to understand. The main features of classical legal language include long, verbose and complicated sentence structures with a passive voice and outdated formalisms, as well as the use of Latin, archaic or unnecessarily long words when there is simpler and clearer language. When creating legal guidelines for your business, avoid legal language, a form of writing that makes your policies unnecessarily complicated.
