––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
- Posted June 21, 2012
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Billions could be saved if 'legalise' was replaced with plain language, author says
Global writing expert and Cooley Law Professor Joseph Kimble pleads the case
for clear language
By Cooley News Service
Thomas M. Cooley Law School Professor Joseph Kimble's latest book documents the untold savings possible if government, business, and the legal profession replaced their forbidding, verbose, unclear writing with plain language.
In "Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please: The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law," Kimble demonstrates the benefits of clear writing through 50 case studies, such as the $4.4 million the Veterans Benefits Administration saved by revising just one letter to millions of veterans.
Kimble also debunks the myths that using plain language creates documents that are not professional, precise, or legally accurate. According to Kimble, eliminating the confusion caused by "legalese" and "officialese" allows readers to more easily understand a document and act on it. The book cites a 2009 survey revealing that 75 percent of participants believe complexity and lack of understanding played a significant role in the worldwide financial crisis. A previous survey found that people had trouble understanding, for instance, how to use a cholesterol drug after reading the product-information sheet.
"Poor communication is the great hidden cost of doing business and governing," Kimble said. "Using plain language pays off for everyone in fewer mistakes, faster compliance, better decisions, and less frustration. Plain language could even help to restore faith in public institutions."
One survey showed that 84 percent of consumers are more likely to trust a company that uses jargon-free language in its communications.
"Besides," Kimble said, "people have a right--a citizen's right, a consumer's right - to understand the rules and the reams of information that affect their lives."
Kimble has taught legal writing at Cooley Law School for 30 years and has lectured widely on the benefits of clear writing. He is the author of Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language, editor in chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, and editor of the "Plain Language" column in the Michigan Bar Journal. Kimble is past president of the international organization Clarity and the drafting consultant on all federal court rules. He is a founding director of the Center for Plain Language.
Published: Thu, Jun 21, 2012
headlines Washtenaw County
- Videos aim to explain the court system
- MLaw student is presented with Wanda Nash Award
- Burgee recognized as a ‘Michigan Go To Lawyer’ for business transactions
- 5Qs: Michigan Law School Professor Eve Brensike Primus makes case for improving indigent defense with more public defenders
- From interrogation to liberation: A gay Chinese survivor’s journey to world of the American dream
headlines National
- This Los Angeles lawyer found her calling as a death doula
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Artificial intelligence tools for brief writing and analysis are a small firm litigator’s new best friend
- Baker McKenzie partner drops suit seeking IRS documents on partnership scrutiny
- Family members sue networks after learning of loved ones’ deaths by seeing bodies on TV
- Ex-BigLaw attorney once ‘consumed with remorse’ over $10M client theft sentenced in new scheme