Professional paper
Towards the improvement of clarity in legal writing
Vesna Vulić
; Polytechnic of Požega, Croatia
Abstract
Legal English often poses problems for non-native English-speaking law students, lawyers, legal and business professionals.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical reference which will help them improve their legal writing skills.
The paper commences with the insight into the development of legal English. Furthermore, it gives the main reasons what makes legal language sometimes diffi cult to understand.
There is no doubt that if legal professionals want to communicate effectively with the members of the public, they must do so in a clear legal language. An awareness of some of the typical features of this writing style can make it easier to understand and write texts of this kind.
Therefore, there are numerous suggestions on what to avoid in legal writing. Naturally, not all, but the most important suggestions are listed.
Finally, it is important to emphasise that this paper is intended to encourage legal professionals to improve their ability to write clear and accurate legal texts and documents in English.
Keywords
avoid; legal English; legal professionals; legal writing
Hrčak ID:
82593
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2009.
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