ISO/DIS 24495-2

Plain language — Part 2: Legal communication ISO/DIS 24495-2

Scope

This proposed standard is for anybody who creates or help create legal and related documents. It builds, and relies, on the foundation for plain language in WD 24495-1, Plain Language — Part 1: Governing Principles and Guidelines. This standard, Plain Language — Part 2 Legal Writing and Drafting, will add guidance and techniques to help authors make sure that people affected by legal and related documents can readily understand, exercise, and carry out their rights and responsibilities.
When readers cannot find, understand, or use legal information in a document, the consequences can be devastating, even life-threatening. For individuals, the inability to understand legal information—to access justice—interferes with the most basic human rights: the ability to earn a living, obtain housing, make sound medical and financial decisions, pursue and defend legal rights, and more. For governments and businesses, the problems of poor legal communication include increased costs, reduced efficiency, and reduced effectiveness and compliance.
The widest use of plain legal language is for governing documents, like legislation and regulations; documents that govern personal or organizational relationships, like financial, housing, and medical agreements; and documents that cover other relationships, like powers of attorney, wills, privacy policies, and terms of use. But the standard will also apply to other legal communications, like advice letters, judicial opinions, jury instructions, forms, human resources (and other) policies, contracts (whether the contract is between an individual and an organization, or between organizations).
The standard will explain how to apply principles from WD 24495-1 to legal situations that may require authors to
• reach multiple audiences, with vastly different needs;
• adhere to specific structural and design requirements;
• explain complex and nuanced legal concepts; and
• explain unfamiliar processes that readers must navigate as they exercise rights or carry out legal responsibilities.

As is the case with Part 1, the aim is for the standard to work in most languages, in most sectors, and for most documents that communicate legal information. The standard will reflect the most recent research on plain legal language and the experience of plain-legal-language experts. To the extent possible, the standard will allow for differences due to different legal systems, for example systems based on British Common Law, French Civil Law, and South African Roman Law.
The standard’s guidelines are recommendations. They do not establish requirements. When localizing the standard, national standards bodies can adapt and expand the standard to achieve the goals of plain language in their own languages and in the context of their own legal systems.
While this Standard covers the essential elements of plain legal language, it has some intentional limits:
• It does not cover all types of communication. It applies only to printed or digital information that is primarily in the form of text. However, creators of other types of communications, such as podcasts and videos, may find this standard useful.
• It does not include existing technical guidance about accessibility and digital documents, although this standard’s guidance can apply to both. For guidance on accessibility, authors of digital documents are urged to consider the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and EN 301 549: Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services.
Later Parts of this standard may provide case studies, best practices, and other supporting information.