Plain Language in Court Documents
I love this study: Is Plain Language better? Comparative Readability Study of Plain Language Court Forms by Maria Mindlin. (PDF)
The study re-writes a Subpoena Duces Tecum and a Proof of Personal Service and discoveres—no joke—that if you re-write them using simpler English, people understand them better.
I am very much against the use of legalese in court documents. While I still want lawyers to have the ability to decrypt legalese, why should we make it harder for each other and especially harder for laypeople?
I ran across this article while trying to find better language for a Subpoena Duces Tecum. The subpoena forms found in the Mass. Practice books or online are crap. The language is meaningless. What do you really need to say? You’re telling someone to come to a courthouse about certain information, over a certain matter, by a certain date. You could really say:
You are ordered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to testify at the Grimes Courthouse at 123 Lawsuit Road, Boston, MA – (617) 123-12345 – at 9:00 AM EST regarding Jones v. Jones (Docket No.: 12-D07-1234).
You are ordered to bring with you all documents relating to all bank accounts in the name of John Jones (S.S.N.: 123-45-6789)…
If you do no follow these orders…
And then you’re done. Pretty clear what you have to do, right? And then you serve this with a cover letter that says that if they just mail you the documents by a certain date, then the people you serve don’t have to show at the courthouse. I would even go as far as Maria Mindlin recommends and change the name from Subpoena Duces Tecum to “Order to Go to Court and Provide Documents.”
Just cut through the bullshit and tell people clearly and precisely what they need to do. Wouldn’t everything be easier that way?
Which also reminds me: Often I’ll call an organization before I subpoena them to find the name of the Keeper of the Records. Usually, people know who this person is. But sometimes when people hear the word “subpoena,” they freak out and figure out a way not to give me that information. (“Oh, you have to send it to someone in California in the legal department there.” “Oh, I don’t know who that should go to… [click - dialtone].”) But if I just told them I need to serve a court order to get some account information from a customer involved in a lawsuit, then I bet it’d be less threatening.
Law School | paul | 
April 22, 2007 10:13 pm
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