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Carl Rauscher
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WASHINGTON–Experts discuss how plain language can help courts expand access to the courts on the of LSC's “Talk Justice” podcast, released today. Talk Justice Co-host Molly McDonough is joined by guests Cheryl Stephens, co-founder of the Plain Language Association International; Claudia Johnson, program manager at Pro Bono Net’s Law Help Interactive; and Maria Mindlin, linguistics expert at the translation agency Transcend.  

For more than 30 years, plain language advocates have pressed for the use of common language on government and court forms, documents and opinions, rather than strict adherence to arcane “legalese” that is foreign to most people. Switching to plain language has had wide support from courts and even in legislation—but significant progress is yet to be seen in enacting this change across the United States.  

Johnson explains how highly specialized language is disempowering to people that need to engage with the legal system to pursue or protect their own rights, making plain language a crucial part of access to justice.  

“A big part of justice requires us to be able to communicate what we need to those that have the power to give us relief—and those that have the power to give us relief are not necessarily just courts [and] they're not necessarily just tribunals—it could be our employer, it could be our housing provider,” says Johnson. “Anywhere where injustice or justice can happen, people need to be able to understand the instructions by which to communicate with those forums.” 

Throughout her career, Stephens has found that getting lawyers to adopt plain language is not easy. Time and money are major hurdles, and the importance of plain language is not always evident to attorneys.  

“This is where leadership is needed, and when you begin to see really big changes is when the courts themselves are doing things,” Stephens says.  

Mindlin points to Washington state’s effort as an example of successful implementation of plain language in courts. Governor Christine Gregoire issued an executive order for all Washington agencies to adopt “plain talk” in public communications in 2005.  

“Some of the salient things that made their program very effective was: number one, they had a dedicated staff person who led the initiative and continues to lead the initiative many years afterwards,” Mindlin says. “They put a lot of emphasis on training all of the court, the court attorneys and staff and everyone in the plain language—they had a court-wide three-day training to kick off the effort [and] they did intensive training for the key stakeholders and they really set very specific goals.” 

Looking to the future of legal services, Johnson points out the importance of sorting out accessible language before building new tech tools that help people engage with legal forms and processes.  

“We cannot build technology around poor forms and poor processes…what you're doing is just putting a little band aid when what you should be doing really is system simplification, and system simplification includes internalizing the fact that you're communicating as a system, as a provider, as a court, with people that are at a certain level of language capacity,” says Johnson.  

The same principle applies to translating English documents into other languages, explains Mindlin. An ineffective legalese document is not worth the time and money to translate; plain language must come first.  

Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple and other popular podcast apps. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.      

The next episode of the podcast will explore illegal evictions’ role in housing insecurity and possible protections.