Preparing Legal Documents For a Lay Audience »

This text teaches lawyers how to adjust their writing to accommodate the nonlegal audience. Improve legal writing for the lay audience as well as find examples of poor legal writing, common errors, why they should be fixed, and how to fix them. This book is ideal for practicing lawyers or law students who want their material to be understood and not ignored.

Introduction: The Audience for Plain Legal Writing     xi
Forms and a Plain-Drafting Process     1
Designing Plain Legal Documents     11
Modern Drafting Conventions     21
Organization and Signposting     33
Plain Letters and Email Messages     41
Advice for Plain Court Documents     49
Testing Your Plain Drafts     57
Words     61
Sentences     73
Using Readability Tests     87
Before-and-After Texts     95
What Is Plain English?     107
Index     121