That’s the headline on Yahoo news. It’s yet another pronouncement that regulations must be written in Plain English. How many of these have we had? Has it made any difference.
Besides, the Government can’t stop writing gibberish – it’d shut down.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110519/ap_on_re_us/us_no_more_gobbledygook
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I agree with the sentiment. But “plain” language can often be subjected to multiple interpretations. It should be “plain but legally specific” language to reduce unexpected and undesirable applications of the law.
Having read and filled in some of the forms, I think that this is a good step. I remember when we were filling in my wife’s citizenship application that the wording was vague and that the instructions were often times more confusing than helpful.
The stuff I’ve seen wasn’t difficult to understand because it was written by lawyers and was legally precise, it was bad because terms were used without being defined and things were vague.
I just looked at the revised N-400 and the form is much clearer than I recall it being when we filled it in a few years ago.
I’m talking about regulations. Things like explanations and helpful advice should certainly be made clear and “plain.”
I gather that the latter is what this law addresses; certainly that’s what the examples in the article were about. It doesn’t do anything about legalese in the laws themselves, probably for the very reasons you cite. I don’t like legalese (what non-lawyer does?), but I understand the necessity for it; in my view, it functions as a programming language for the court system, and like all programming languages, it has its own peculiar definitions and syntax. The problem for most people is that it looks like English, so they figure they should be able to parse it as English…which is about like trying to read a book written entirely in INTERCAL.
On the other hand, instructions on forms, safety tips, and the like should be in English. They’re intended for individual people, not for the courts.
If the gibberish is greater than the nonsense subtract it from your gross earnings listed on line 37, if not, multiply the nonsense by the difference of last years carry over and add it to the gibberish. This is your adjusted gross indifference.
If your adjusted gross indifference is listed in the table of confusion and it shows you still owe taxes then call this adoption hot-line to qualify for additional deductions. 555-diapers.
The funny part is that the worst of it isn’t written by lawyers, it’s written by a bureaucrat trying to write like a lawyer.