A bit of plain speaking can go a long way – The Times

Posted July 28th, 2007 in legal language, special report by sally

“The US and the UK – so the saying goes – are ‘two countries divided by a common language’. The same could be said for lawyers and non-lawyers. Lawyers talk in a language which must seem like gobbledygook to everyone else. Take the word ‘tort’. Any law student knows that it means ‘civil wrong’. But ask a non-lawyer to give you a sentence with the word ‘tort’ in it and they might as well say: ‘I tort I tore a puddy cat!’ for all the sense it will mean to them.”

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The Times, 26th July 2007

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk