Search Results for: legal
Lili Krámer
Lili Krámer is a sociologist-criminologist at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), a human rights NGO. She coordinates HHC’s project for promoting the use of plain language by criminal justice actors (judges, lawyers and police), in order to make the criminal procedure more accessible to people without a legal background.
Do you understand your rights? Making the Letters of Rights more accessible
Published in the Clarity Journal 81 – 2020 Introduction Lili Krámer, Zsófia Moldova, and Vera Gergely The Letter of Rights is a text that informs suspects of their fundamental rights (such as the right to remain silent or the right to have a lawyer). If you are suspected of something the police will either read […]
Virtual International plain language conference (2021) – Access for all : Plain Language is a Civil Right – Part 2
DESIGN. LITERACY. PRACTICE. Access for All: Plain Language is a Civil Right, is a virtual conference dedicated to using plain language to break down barriers in society. Through our three themes – design, literacy, and practice – we will explore how to bring access to all through plain language. Co-hosted by Clarity, the Center for Plain Language […]
Organizations
Many organizations around the world are dedicated to promote Plain Legal Language. Find the ones in your own country and do not hesitate to contact them to get resources or support!
External Resources
So much has been written for many years about plain legal language all around the world. Here are articles, Web page, books from plain language experts or scholars that may interest you.
Maria Mindlin
Maria Mindlin is CEO of Transcend, a company that provides plain language and translation services to courts and agencies in the U.S. She also teaches and trains others in the legal sector so they can learn more about readability and user testing. Maria’s work integrates today’s technologies with plain language, accessibility, and design.
Tanushree Padath
Tanushree Padath is a Project Manager/Visual and UX designer at Transcend. She makes plain text more accessible by incorporating design principles and iconography. She also conducts design and usability workshops for the legal sector. She has served as a judge in the 2019 Clearmark awards in the website category.
Justice: Plain language in family law helps but it’s not enough
Published in The Clarity Journal 81 – 2020. Introduction This article discusses how plain language in Australian family law combined with a clear process makes justice more accessible. Both substantive and procedural law are discussed. Justice requires minimal delays, minimal costs and accessibility. Law is accessible when substantive and procedural laws are understood by lay […]
The value of plain language jury instructions in facilitating access to justice
Published in The Clarity Journal 81 – 2020. The right to a trial by jury is one of the fundamental elements of the American system of justice. Jurors are asked to engage in a complicated and difficult task, listening to different versions of facts provided by the parties at a trial and applying their understanding […]
Does plain language only benefit the higher literate? Avoiding the Matthew-effect in plain language revisions
Published in The Clarity Journal 80 – 2019. Every reader of this journal will be convinced that plain language revisions improve reading success. But in this article, I will argue that this improved success might not help the people you wanted to help in the first place; people who do not read as easily as […]