Published Paper Details:

The Plain English Movement refers to the efforts to make legal documents more accessible to the general public by simplifying the language used. This paper analyses the practicality of its objectives of this movement. It studies this practicality in two areas: the first being the simplification of languages used in legal statutes while the other half focus on the practicality of replacing legalese for plain English inside the courtrooms. The value of legalese which has been used for generations cannot be disregarded; but there is a need for simplifying the language used in statutes especially when the statute requires direct participation of the people. However, in courtrooms the lawyers must have utmost freedom to rely on legalese as all concerned are trained in this language. Moreover, legal terms are often built on a history of legal doctrines and case laws, so when a lawyer uses a specific term, he summons the relevancy of these doctrines and case laws to make his point. The plain English language generally lacks these legal implications and if the lawyers want to make these legal implications with the use of plain language, it often results in a vague and time consuming task. But legal language must be used with due care as the excessive use may render any document incomprehensible.