Plain Language Translations of American Divorce Law
159corrections must also be somewhat trained in plain language translation
work, at least to the extent that they do not simply re-impose the bad
writing problems back into the materials they are supposedly correcting. A
typical training experience might be a two-day workshop starting with
teaching readability principles and then conducting interactive training and
review. This was the technique used by Washington State when creating
its plain language divorce forms.
The usual tests for the readability of the documents produced are field
tests of the documents themselves with members of their intended
audiences. Generally, a test taker would fill out a court form and then
answer a questionnaire that would elicit the test taker’s comprehension
level and perhaps point out problems with the form. Additionally, some
test takers might be asked to circle words or phrases on the form that they
did not understand or had to guess at the meaning. Through such tests, it
has become very apparent that better written plain language court forms
improve comprehension.
Furthermore, courts have found that plain language forms enable non-
specialists to do a better job in completing the forms so that they are more
acceptable to the courts and reduce costly delays. Also, court orders
written in plain language are better understood and lead to better
compliance by the litigants. In the United States, it is common procedure
for one of the litigants to make a first draft of a court order for the judge to
sign or to correct slightly before signing. Since it is normal that one
litigant would seek a court order to command the other litigant to do
something, then both litigants must be able to comprehend these court
orders. Plain language court order forms improve that comprehension.
A cognitive linguistics analysis of readability principles
For the following analysis, I shall borrow the list of readability principles
found in Transcend (2012). Transcend Translations, Inc., is a Davis,
California-based company that provides readability consultation services,
including the translation of “legalese” into plain language format. The
company refers to itself simply as Transcend. Transcend was the company
that provided first level plain language translation services for the Pro Se
Project of the Washington State Access to Justice Board, as well as for the
courts of several other states.
According to Transcend (2012), the following techniques should be
used in order to ensure readability: