In ‘the Art of Readable Writing’ (1949) Rudolph Flesch provides advice that applies to writers of legal documents as well as blog posts, books, and other media. Here are some of his tips, with relevant legal examples, to help you write contracts that others can read, understand and use. Benefits
Does this sound like you? When we set up our consultancy practice, like many professionals we cobbled (cut + paste) together an appointment from documents we’d been provided by our professional body and or obtained from other consultants. We took an ‘that seems to look right’ or ‘it covers most
When a court or tribunal interprets your carefully crafted contract, it doesn’t ask your opinion. It reviews the written terms to analyse ‘what a reasonable person having all the [parties’ then] background knowledge… would have understood… the language in the contract to mean‘. As they are not mystics, the courts
Clarity and legibility in contractual language is widely recognised as desirable in its own right but [the Consumer Rights Act] goes beyond promoting that objective as an end in itself … the transparency provisions in the Act have to be understood as demanding ‘transparency’ in the full sense. If your
Everyone prefers plain language – your clients expect and want it from their advisers, their business partners, their regulatory authorities and also from their lawyers. But the skills to write plainly are uncommon, and the tools and techniques need to be learnt and practiced (and bad habits erased). Bad Habits
“To be clear is to be efficient; to be obscure is to be inefficient. Your style . . . is to be judged not by literary conventions or grammatical niceties but by whether it carries out efficiently the job you are paid to do.” As the author of the 500
Some companies think hard about making their websites, guides, and blogs user-friendly and easy to read. But they rarely follow this tone of voice into their contracts. Think about it: until your prospective customer has agreed to your contract, they are still a prospect. That means you are still woo-ing
Whether you are a lawyer, business owner or consultant, there are three temptations when writing a contract. They are: Temptation 1: using jargon and/or legalese Temptation 2: stealing with pride Temptation 3: writing a new deal Let’s start with temptation 1, typified by using jargon or phrases which you don’t
According to this Thomson Reuter’s Blog Legalese is “a colloquial term describing the body of formal and technical legal language that is difficult or impossible for laypeople to understand.” It is ridiculously common but can you avoid it when writing your contract? No-one needs legalese In this introduction to a
During the Annual NEC User Group conference, I had a lively twitter debate with Chris Hallam (@ChrisHallamLaw), a Partner at CMS, on the use of NEC3 (the New Engineering Contract, Engineering and Construction Contract, Third edition). From reading between the lines, I don’t think he’s convinced by NEC’s preference for