Standards Development

Scope

This document addresses legal communication, and it builds on the foundation for plain language in ISO 24495‑1. It provides guidelines and techniques to help authors make sure that readers can readily understand legal communication in order to exercise their legal rights and fulfil their legal obligations.

This document explains how to apply principles from ISO 24495‑1 in legal contexts that require authors to achieve these goals:

— reach multiple audiences with different needs;

— adhere to specific structural and design requirements;

— explain complex and nuanced legal concepts;

— explain processes that readers must navigate to exercise legal rights and obligations.

This document applies to legal documents and sectors, including the legal, governmental, non-governmental and health sectors. Similarly to ISO 24495-1, it aims to work for most languages, but it provides examples only in English. It reflects research on plain legal language and the experience of experts in the field (see Reference [3]). To the extent possible, this document allows for differences in legal systems.

Although this document applies mainly to written communication, it can in some contexts apply to oral communication, such as discussions with clients and explanations in court proceedings.