Application of Legal English in Communication

1.6 English-I

Submitted by:
XYZ
UID: UG23-----
Academic Year (2023-24)
First Year, Semester 1

Submitted to:
Dr. Shivender Rahul
( Assistant professor of English)

SEPTEMBER 2022

MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR

 APPLICATION OF LEGAL ENGLISH IN COMMUNICATION

Abstract
Language is an intrinsic part of the legal profession; narratives are set and sentences are
pronounced with the proper use of language. Law is literally a result of the interaction between
language and logic. Legal English is not the same as everyday English and is commonly referred
to as ‘legalese’.
This paper aims to understand the impact of legal English on communication in a courtroom. It
aims to analyse the term ‘legalese’ and offer an explanation of why the use of legalese is
necessary for a courtroom. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyse whether legal English always
has a positive effect despite its complexities. Or does it sometimes act as a hindrance to the
delivery of justice? This paper seeks to prove its point by presenting a famous case and decoding
the role played by the language in the setting of the narrative and ultimately in the delivery of
judgement.

Keywords: Communication, Courtroom, Legal narrative, Legal English , Justice.

1. INTRODUCTION

Language is defined as “a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of

conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings.” Language is
essential for human interaction in society and without it, the proliferation of ideas and
happenings of the world is unimaginable. Language takes multiple diverse forms across the
world and yet it binds people together and enables them to communicate, regardless of the
language they understand. Just like different groups of people have their own lingo, different
professions also have different languages populated with the specific jargon of that profession.

The legal profession has its own linguistic identity in the form of legal English. The language
used in the legal profession is usually free from any ambiguity in order to reduce loopholes in the
law that can be exploited by individuals for their own benefit. Legal English, more commonly
known as legalese, has jargon which has mainly evolved from Latin and French. Comparison
between legal English and normal spoken or written English has showcased many dissimilarities.
These differences will be discussed in further detail later on in the paper.

Communication is another skill essential for not only the legal profession but also in the
everyday life of every person. The topic of communication has troubled multiple Greek
philosophers since time immemorial. Especially in the legal profession, the communication of
ideas is pivotal to the success of the case, and the set-up of the legal narrative. Communication
includes not only the spoken language but also the body language and presentation of the person.
In this paper, we will largely focus on the communication of ideas in the courtroom scenario
through the application of legal English.

Communication in a courtroom scenario with the use of legal English can help make or break a
case. The impact of legal language in communication is something which has a lot of study
potential which will be explored further on in the project by the researcher.

2. THE LANGUAGE OF LAW: LEGAL ENGLISH

The language employed by persons involved in the legal profession is fundamentally called legal
language. The terminology used by lawyers, judges, and those who make laws is professional.
There are a few variations, including legal English and regional legal languages. The legal
language is a formalised language full of legal jargon adopted from various foreign languages
like Latin, French, Italian, etc.

It is possible to trace the beginnings of legal English to prehistoric Britain. Up until the Romans
gave them a written form in their own language, Latin, laws were transmitted verbally. The
Roman invasion of Britain by General Julius Caesar in 55 BC is credited as the start of British
history. In 43 AD, they made a second trip and took control of Britain. The Roman legal system
was thereafter substantially and clearly adopted in courts and other legal proceedings in Roman
Britain. Latin became the legal language of Britain because it was the official language and legal
language of the Romans. Hundreds of thousands of Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Frisians migrated
to Britain from the Continent around 450 A.D. and the English language was born. These
Germanic invaders spoke languages that evolved into Anglo-Saxon or Old English. Although
there does not appear to have been a distinct legal profession among the Anglo-Saxons, they did
develop a type of legal language, remnants of which have survived to the present day. Words
such as bequeath, goods, guilt, manslaughter, murder, oath, right, sheriff, steal, swear, theft,
thief, ward, witness, and writ are examples.

Other than the vocabulary used, the morphology, syntax and semantics in legal English are
different from that of regular English. While they share a lot of common vocabulary, it would be
quite impossible for a traditional English speaker to understand the meaning of regular terms in
the legal context. In contrast to regular English, legal English uses relatively complex sentences
that appear to be overly complicated. This is because the sentences are usually quite long and
verbose to avoid the exploitation of any ambiguity present in the document. Additionally, legal
English often prefers the use of passive voice over active voice as opposed to regular English
which prefers active voice.

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

There are multiple characteristics of legal English most of these pertain to the way in which the
language is spoken or written and the role it plays in communication. These characteristics are
largely associated with the vocabulary and specialised lingo used and how the sentences are
structured, the use of grammar in the structuring of the sentences and how the language is
interpreted differently in comparison to everyday English.

3.1 Legal English often uses common words with unconventional meanings. As stated above,
legal English and general English do share a lot of common everyday vocabulary but the way it
is used in the legal language is significantly different from the way it is used in general, everyday
English.

3.2 In legal texts, often foreign words; the meanings of which are not known to the layman are
used. Legalese borrows words from different languages like Latin, French, etc. Numerous
maxims in the legal language, like volenti non-fit injuria, and force majeure have been borrowed
from the Latin language.

3.3 Apart from vocabulary, another Anglo-Saxon trace in the legal language is the constant use
of alliteration and repetition. We can see multiple examples of simple words in legal documents
coming up multiple times which makes the text extremely wordy. A reason for this could be to
ensure a lack of ambiguity. Outside of legal English, such obsessive repetition of terms could be
seen as unnecessary and maybe even comic.

3.4 Historically, legal English was known to be of long intricate sentences with minimum
punctuation. In the earlier era of the legal profession, statutes introduced a single sentence
without any other punctuation other than the final period to indicate the end of the sentence.
Although reforms in punctuation have slowly been introduced in legal English, it is still quite
complicated.

3.5 Legal documents are written in a manner that is remarkably objective and nonpartisan. The
notion of objectivity and authority is further supported by the widespread usage of the third
person (singular and plural) in legislative documents. When a provision, for instance, applies to
everyone, the sentence either starts with every person, everyone, etc. when expressing a
responsibility or authority or no person, no one, etc.

4. LEGAL ENGLISH IN COMMUNICATION

Communication plays an important part in all professions but even more so in the legal
profession because of its extremely interactive nature. Legal professionals have to draft
contracts, letters, notices, and emails on a daily basis, additionally, they also have to
communicate the facts and prayers in the court of law, because of how intrinsic communication
is to this profession, the importance of the language used also increases significantly.

The framework of the legal language is such that the proper use of this language can properly
determine the outcome of the case. Through the appropriate use of legal jargon, facts of the case
can be presented in such a way that the presiding judges might favour the case even if the scales
might not be in the presenter’s favour. But only the appropriate use of jargon does not suffice.
Along with it, proper communication of ideas is also necessary. This communication of ideas can
be done by employing various methods of communication to confirm whether the
communication has been successful. This can be done by employing the following strategies;

 Keep it interesting- necessary literary and historical or contemporary references should

be used during the communication of ideas to engage the audience and ensure that all the
information is understood by the audience. Additionally, personal experiences and stories
can also help keep the audience engaged.

 It should be remembered that while the use of legal jargon is necessary, it must be kept in
mind that overuse of jargon unnecessarily complicates the sentences and challenges the
entire meaning of the sentence thus becoming a hindrance in the proper communication
of ideas.

 Use appropriate grammar because often, improper use of grammar acts as an alienating
factor for people. It would also do well to remember that if the grammar is not used
properly it can entirely change the meaning of the sentence.

 Additionally, the tone and style which is used by the speaker while communicating oral
ideas are also extremely crucial. A speaker must have full knowledge of the topic or ideas
that she wishes to communicate and must manage the tone and pitch of her voice
accordingly. The speaker must be careful to not sound too monotonous as this would
distract the listener from the speech as it could seem boring to avoid this, voice
modulation is of utmost importance.

4.1 Communication in a Courtroom-

To better understand how communication plays an essential role in setting up a legal narrative
and to understand how it affects the popular legal discourse of the case, we can take an example
of a famous case which was highly publicised and involved a high-profile client.

In the case of The People of California v. Orenthal James Simpson, 1996; O.J. Simpson a
famous football player, broadcaster and actor was tried and acquitted for the murder of his wife
and her friend. Other than the facts of the case which pointed to the fact that Mr Simpson was
liable for the murders that he was accused of, there were also other facts like his reluctance
towards surrendering and the fact that he was on run from the cops for a period of time before he
was finally captured and of course his history of domestic violence which had led to the divorce
with his ex-wife that clearly pointed towards his guilt, the end verdict of this trial was shocking
for one and all. This trial helps us understand the important role of legal English in the setting up
of a narrative because even though irrefutable forensic evidence was present that could result in
the conviction of Mr Simpson, he was acquitted. Mr Simpson’s lawyer exploited the situations
present in California to tip the scales in his favour. Since the trial came shortly after the 1992 Los
Angeles riots where unrest was caused by the excessive use of force by the policemen of the city
especially against the African-American population of the city, the lawyer charged the anger of
the people towards the justice system present in the city to transform the trial from the issue of
the murder of two people to that of rampant racism of the justice system.

This setup of a narrative about how Mr Simpson an African-American man was being framed for
the murder of his wife and her friend was only possible through the set up of a labyrinthine
narrative with the use of legal English. This case is regarded as one of the most publicised
criminal trials in history because of the wide international attention that it gathered. This helps us
understand the importance of legal English in communication in a courtroom scene. Because, in
the absence of proper communication techniques, such a verdict wouldn’t have been possible at
all.

4.2 SHORTCOMINGS IN COMMUNICATION THROUGH LEGAL ENGLISH AND

HOW TO OVERCOME THESE

As discussed earlier, the legal language is at times unnecessarily complicated. It has various
shortcomings which not only prove an obstacle towards the spread of legal knowledge in society
but also pose a hindrance to the proper delivery of justice and often result in the miscarriage of
justice which ultimately reduces the people’s trust in the justice delivery system.

There are multiple faults in legal English and its communication. Most of these faults are related
to when the basic characteristics of legal English itself. One very important problem with legal
English is that of excessive use of foreign language words borrowed from languages like French,
Latin and German which makes it extremely complicated to understand the meaning of
sentences. After all, it is legal English so why not just stick to majorly English phrases and
jargon and reduce the complexities of the legal documents. Additionally, lawyers also seem to
have a certain indifference towards the length of the sentences in legal documents and often
forego all sorts of punctuation marks as well this makes it harder to interpret and understand the
meaning of the sentence which ends up being another problem in the right delivery of justice in
the society. The two factors stated previously also make it extremely hard for a layman to
understand and decode legal writing without the help of a legal professional which is essentially
restricting access to justice for the common people. Furthermore, another rather out-of-the-
ordinary shortcoming of the legal language is that it is unnecessarily dull. Often legal documents
tend to be extremely dull because they just monotonously state the facts of the case and
excessively use jargon which just simply becomes very boring, especially considering the
amount of documents lawyers have to scroll through on a daily basis.

To rectify these faults, the upcoming generation of lawyers must try to break the age-old
tradition of using too much legal jargon just to appear smart and should understand that
documents don’t need to be so full of extreme vocabulary which is so hard to understand that the
document gets misinterpreted and results in wrongful delivery of justice. The use of simple
English must be promoted in the court of law and significant improvements must be made so that
the documents are not too wordy and hard to comprehend.

5. CONCLUSION

Legal English plays an integral and irreplaceable role when it comes to communication in a
courtroom. The essential characteristic of legal English must be taken into consideration and it
must be understood that these characteristics are only guidelines towards bettering your
knowledge and presentation in legal English. So one must be aware of the consequences if these
are overused.

Further one must also understand the irrevocable importance of communication in not only the
legal profession but also in daily life where one wrong word can result in multiple undesirable
consequences. Effective communication reduces the possibility of misunderstandings among
coworkers, clients, and other members of your practice. As a practising lawyer, the clients will
also want to avoid misunderstandings because they may be expensive and sometimes difficult to
resolve. Everyone will be aware of what is expected of them and the steps they need to take if
there is effective communication.