Have you ever considered that legalese might be a barrier to lawyers’ understanding, too? Once lawyers get outside of their practice area, the language they encounter feels like confusing legal jargon. This makes it harder for lawyers to volunteer to help everyday people who need legal services. So even when there’s the desire to help—and an elegant, streamlined structure to facilitate helping, like Paladin—confusing legal language still diminishes lawyers’ ability to provide legal services.

It’s eye-opening to discover that legal jargon confuses lawyers, too. And it’s heartbreaking to realize how that impacts access to justice. But access to justice entrepreneurs Felicity Conrad and Kristen Sonday are changing that. They’ve built a technology platform to help legal teams run more efficient pro bono programs, and as part of that effort, they’ve tackled how access to justice is wrapped up in jargon.

We spoke with Felicity and Kristen about how plain language impacts access to justice. In this interview, they illustrate how language is an ever-present issue: from top-25 languages that are entirely unrepresented in law; to legal euphemisms that obscure the social justice implications of laws; to the legalese that makes it hard for lawyers to help the public. These insights will make you re-think what you think you know about legal communication. Read the interview now.

Plain language expert Russell Willerton believes that professionals have an ethical imperative to write plainly in certain situations. He hopes to get us to spend less energy talking “at” someone and more energy talking “with” someone in a true dialogue. Put simply: Some situations require more care than others.

Unfortunately, many of us never consider how a reader comes to information in their lives and the outside factors that may impede their ability to comprehend the message. We think only about what we want to say and we forget about the reader’s human needs. To address that problem, Russell created the BUROC framework (Bureaucratic, Unfamiliar, Rights-Oriented, and Critical) to identify situations in which audiences would benefit from plain language.

We spoke with Russell to learn more about how plain language relates to access to justice and empathy for the reader. In this interview, Russell illustrates how unclear language is a barrier to understanding and harms decision-making. Read on for more insight on plain language and justice.

Consider the consequences of unclear communication. It’s more than closing a browser window in frustration or scratching your head in confusion. In this straightforward interview, plain language expert Barbra Kingsley, PhD gives real-world examples of how misunderstanding seriously harms people.

Barbra’s interview is a wake-up call to professionals, people in power positions, and governments. When people encounter information they don’t understand, they don’t keep searching—they give up. We have an ethical obligation to help them before that happens. We do that through plain language. Read on as Barbra makes a convincing case for plain language in law, health, finance, and anywhere important rights are at stake.

Plain language helps people to find what they need, understand what they find, and have enough information to act on and meet their needs. The intersection where health and law meet seems like one of the least likely places where you’d find plain language. But Professor Christopher Trudeau is changing that.

We spoke with Chris about plain language and health literacy. In this interview, Chris explains how “every facet of modern life can be improved or enhanced by plain language” and shares what he’s learned from his research. Read on for Chris’s plain language insight.

Using plain language makes good business sense—and plain language expert Deborah S. Bosley, PhD has dedicated her work to helping corporations and government entities communicate clearly.

In this straight-forward interview, Deborah makes a clear case for plain language in business and civic life and she challenges all professionals to take responsibility for public understanding. Read on as Deborah explains the ethical imperative to write in a manner that’s easy for the public to understand and offers insight on clear communication.

Our language choices can create a barrier to understanding, but they can also do something worse. The words we use can disempower, retraumatize, and confuse the people most needing the resources—who are often overlooked by the professionals duty-bound to serve them.

To truly be service-oriented professionals, we must put clear, compassionate communication first. We must go beyond plain language to trauma-sensitive language. Dorna Moini, CEO and Co-founder of Gavel understands these needs and she’s dedicated to providing access to justice through technology that serves the people.

We spoke with Dorna about how plain language impacts access to justice. In this interview, Dorna paints a moving picture of the importance of language and urges us, as officers of the court and protectors of the law, to expand legal information to members of the public. Read on for Dorna’s insights.

Editors help writers meet the needs of their audience. Plain-language editors do even more. Plain-language editors evaluate written content, assess how easy it would be for a member of the general public to understand and act on it, then edit the content to better meet audience needs. This approach is backed by science and user testing and is highly contextual. It takes an expert to get it right. Iva Cheung is that expert.

We spoke with Iva Cheung—one of the most authoritative voices on plain language editing—about plain language and access to justice. In this interview, Iva illustrates how unclear language is a barrier to understanding and therefore exercising rights. Read on for Iva’s insightful and moving interview on plain language and justice.

Anyone who writes for the public must do so clearly. While it’s easy to complain about legalese, business-speak, and medical jargon, unclear writing that harms the public can come from another place: the news.

Since 1975, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies has been leading the charge for journalistic integrity and clear writing with hopes to fortify journalism’s role in a free society. As stewards of public information, journalists must deliver the information in a manner that the public can understand.

We spoke with renowned author, former journalist, and senior scholar for Poynter, Roy Peter Clark, about plain language and its connection to a concept called “civic clarity.” Read this interview for insight on making hard facts easy reading. Then ask yourself the 20 questions for civic clarity that will help writers solve problems and satisfy their duty of clear communication.

A common assumption about plain language is that it requires “dumbing down” material for readers to their disadvantage. But plain legal language researcher and advocate, Cheryl Stephens, knows that’s not true. Plain language is as clear, understandable, and simple as the situation allows and it is effective for its purpose.

Drawing on empathy and neuroscience research, Cheryl helps professionals and businesses understand why plain language is important and teaches them to create documents that readers will understand.

We spoke with Cheryl about misconceptions about plain language and the many approaches scientists use to predict whether a document is readable. In this interview, you’ll learn how readability and writeability work together and gain a framework for legal literacy. Read on for Cheryl’s lessons in plain language.

When it comes to writing, learning from others and then practicing what you have learned can be of immense help. In this interview, WordRake speaks with Adam Eckart, Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at Suffolk University Law School, who teaches legal writing and has written extensively on teaching writing to law students, including through using tech in both litigation and transactional settings.