Plain Language for Lawyers 5th ed

Australia Title

Michèle Asprey’s Plain Language for Lawyers has established itself over the past 33 years and four editions as a comprehensive, authoritative, practical, entertaining and enormously useful book. It:

• Explores the reasons why lawyers should be writing in plain language, including the legislation that requires it, the cases that call for it, the poor image of lawyers, and explains what clients (and judges) really want in legal writing.
• Discusses plain language as the international standard for good legal writing and surveys recent developments in plain language worldwide.
• Explains the main elements of plain language step-by-step, with supporting legal analysis and case law.
• Examines the principles of legal interpretation in the light of recent case law.
• Updates its plain language vocabulary.
• Covers writing for email, social media, websites and the internet, including the latest on defamation law and the implications of emerging artificial intelligence technology.
• Surveys document design for both print and the computer screen, including updated research on typography, reading speed and comprehension.

Plain Language for Lawyers is an essential resource for lawyers who aspire to communicate well.

Professor Kimble names Michèle Asprey’s book Plain Language for Lawyers as one of the top publications in the history of plain language.

In Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please – The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law – Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina, Professor Kimble lists Michele Asprey’s book as number 7 on his list of the top publications – quite an accolade. It appears alongside David Mellinkoff’s book The Language of the Law (from 1963), Richard Wydick’s book Plain English for Lawyers (from 1979), Rudolph Flesch’s work, and Ernest Gowers’s The Complete Plain Words, among others.

table of content

1. What is this book about?
2. What is plain language?
3. Why plain language?
4. Fundamentals
5. Structure
6. Words
7. Grammatical structures to avoid
8. Legal affectations and other nasty habits
9. Overused words and formulas
10. Little words: big problems
11. What about the principles of legal interpretation?
12. A plain language vocabulary
13. Legal writing in the digital age
14. Document design basics
15. Designing for the computer screen
16. Testing your writing
17. Any questions?

Supplement – Plain language around the world