“I didn’t spend all those years studying just to write in plain language now.” This is a sentence I once heard from a fellow lawyer. It was at the very beginning of our struggle to implement plain language at Zbroja Adwokaci. A struggle – there is no better word for it –because for us, lawyers, the greatest difficulty in using plain language is a mental barrier.
And even once that barrier is overcome, there are many habits we simply must unlearn, which is often harder than learning something from scratch.
What plain language is really about
It is only about one thing: making sure people understand you. Here and now. So that they do not have to spend an hour deciphering an email from a lawyer – especially when they need to decide in five minutes. So that after the first interaction, they still want to talk to you and are not afraid to do so. Without analyzing whether they are asking a smart or a stupid question. Without wondering whether they have really understood the answer and then looking for confirmation online.
Why it is so difficult
Because no one ever taught us communication. We were taught only how to use language correctly. Of course – just to be clear – plain language is also the correct language. It is, and must be, correct in every aspect: stylistic, grammatical, punctuation-related – without that, it simply would not be clear.
But above all, language must be understandable and consider who we are speaking to and what we want to convey.
Sometimes I have the impression that lawyers’ conversations and written submissions are like ceremonial tributes, meant to showcase their knowledge, eloquence, and years of education. The recipient becomes little more than an object onto which these golden thoughts are bestowed. It does not really matter what they do with the information, or whether they process it at all. What matters is that, from my side, everything looked impeccable.
That said, to be fair – implementing plain language is often not a problem on our side alone. Clients, too, have a mental barrier when it comes to documents in which at least several pages are not filled with verbatim quotations from statutes.
For us, quoting the law is very safe – safer than explaining a provision in our own words and risking that the client or the opposing party will draw different conclusions. Of course, we must be cautious. But let us avoid becoming like doctors who quote the name of a disease straight from a medical classification without explaining what is actually wrong, because the patient might misunderstand and later make a claim. Or like car mechanics who do not even care whether anyone understands them, because the car will be left for repair anyway.
Our value lies in partnership
Pioneers never have it easy. Still, plain language is one of the fundamental features of communication through which we strive to stand out. We want to be partners to our clients and support them in understanding the legal environment – also through the language we use.
