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Common legal terms are as follows, which we have covered in this lesson: Although there has been a movement towards the use of plain or plain 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. In the UK and THE US, advocates of plain English have campaigned to reform legal language to make legal documents more understandable to the public. There are laws around the world that explicitly prohibit the use of legal language in legal policy. 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. An example of legal language is the terms and conditions of a contract.

In a mobile phone contract, there may be certain conditions: the amount due each month, the customer`s obligation to refund the phone, military exemptions or payment plans. All this can become very confusing, especially if the person does not understand his obligations when buying the phone. Use plain language instead of legal language to make users happy and attract more customers. For example, I can`t understand most of the terms and conditions of this app. That is the whole legal language. Let`s say you sign a contract to become a professional basketball player. The contract contains many confusing conditions that you are not sure about. Before you decide to sign, hire a lawyer to review the contract with you. He tells you that the legal language of a contract is sometimes too difficult for the typical person to understand. That`s why it`s important for a lawyer to look at the contract first.

“Examination” is legal language – but an important legal German because it describes exactly how a court should review a law. For us, the worst authors are legal language and planning documents. Generally used as a pejorative term for written forms of legal English, legal language is characterized by verbosity, Latin expressions, nominalizations, embedded clauses, passive verbs, and long sentences. 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. Don`t copy your competitors` terms and conditions or other policies, as they may be interspersed with legal language. In addition, legal language makes users feel alienated, as most people outside the legal profession are not familiar with legal jargon. If users have trouble understanding your policies because there is too much legal language, it can have consequences for your business. Legal writing courses in law schools are increasingly emphasizing the benefits of legal writing, which can be clear, concise, and understood by non-legal readers. Proponents of plain English argue that, since non-lawyers have adapted their legal rights, duties and obligations through legal instruments, parties should be able to understand the content of the instrument without having to bear the additional costs of hiring a lawyer to translate legal language. TurboTax`s current user agreement, which still contains an arbitration clause, contains more than 15,000 words of dense legal German.

I realize that this statement is written in the anointed jurisprudential language that judges must use, but I am sure that Justice Gallagher is letting his true feelings shine here. Below is an example of the passage of the terms and conditions in the Strawberry Mobile Phones contract. It deals with the guarantees provided by the company. See how many examples of legal language you can identify: Here are some common examples of legal language. Each of them comes with a short definition or explanation: Let`s think back to your basketball contract. Why does it contain legal language? The basketball contract is a binding agreement between you and the team. Because you`re supposed to behave in a certain way and be bound by certain standards, your understanding of expectations may be different from that of the team. To ensure that everyone is on the same page, the contract details each goal in detail to avoid flaws and misunderstandings. 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 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. The examples above show that it is possible to replace the legal language of your policies with simple language. See the full definition of legal language in the dictionary of English language learners Now that you are more aware of these legal terms, you should be more familiar with what you see the next time you look at a legal form. Create a graphic, poster, or other type of graphic organizer that lists the pros and cons of legal language. 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. A person may want to unlock their phone, but can`t because they haven`t paid their bill. It is included in the terms and conditions, but the customer may have gone through these terms and conditions and thinks that they are too complicated or do not apply. In this case, the legal language protects the company, but if the legal language is not explained or the customer does not read the contract in its entirety, the customer may feel that he has been mistreated. When creating legal guidelines for your business, avoid legal language, a form of writing that makes your policies unnecessarily complicated. 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. These sample sentences are automatically selected from various online information sources to reflect the current use of the word “legal language.” The opinions expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us your feedback. Here`s another legal example found in an example of a limitation of liability clause: Here are three main reasons why you should refrain from using legal language when creating your legal and business policies. Make a list of five types of agreements in which you might encounter legal language. The lesson provides an example of a cell phone contract, but find five examples that are unique to you. Translated from legal German into plain text, this sentence simply refers to the “date” line, which often follows a signature. In his eyes, Washington was dominated by lawyers who all spoke incomprehensible legal German — or, as Keynes put it, “Cherokee.” .