Alan Siegel: Let’s simplify legal jargon!
www.ted.com Tax forms, credit agreements, healthcare legislation They’re crammed with gobbledygook, says Alan Siegel, and incomprehensibly long. He calls for a simple, sensible redesign — and plain English — to make legal paperwork intelligible to the rest of us.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com
This is what we need in Germany!
@Peterlisinski milds amusement
here here .see, simple.
Appendix to the questionnaire.
Feel free to answer more than one alternative if you think the words meaning differs dependent on the context. Do you think that people in general agree on these contextual differences? Yes or no?
Hello, I am conducting some research for a small linguistic essay concerning the meaning of the internet word LOL. I would be very grateful if you would quickly answer the questions below about how you use and interpret the word.
Does it mean?
A: To actually laugh out loud.
B: To express mild amusement.
C: To express large amusement.
D: To express appreciation.
E: None of the above (if so please specify the actual meaning).
What is the difference between LAW and LEGAL?
Ignorence of the LAW is no defence .. as there are only three parts to it. Life, Liberty, Property. This is LEGAL, statutes, acts, rules … 1000′s of pages of nonsence, that is pretty much irrelevant to anyone who knows what LAW is … :0)
I think lawyers and politicans should first off be paid way less. People are doing these jobs for money, not because they want to. Therefore, when they can cheat you out of money, they will because they don’t care about you.
Epic idea. The more simple and focused we keep the communication between the government and the people, the less confusion there will be.
The way I see it, such confusion can often be a means of manipulating and frightening people into doing unwise things. This is not only an irrational approach to running a country, but also immoral on a fundamental level.
Fantastic video.
plain english will never be widely accepted because people will jump at the chance to dupe someone
The only reason this is accepted is because it was slowly titrated into the commercial world over a hundred years. The economic infrastructure supports millions of people with useless jobs. No one should NEED a lawyer. If you can’t defend yourself in plain language, you need a doctor. Keeping people’s jobs is not reason enough to waste countless hours and dollars on garbage. EVOLVE ALREADY PEOPLE! Life should support life.
Good
Yes yes of course but egad, eradicate incomprehensible jargon and you wipe out 50% of the professions in one fell swoop, there’s a reason why an average person might look at a painting and call it colourful whilst a fine art graduate would call it “spectrally dynamic” usually all a college education bestows is an understanding of and license to converse in the language of the trade, if ordinary people understood the law who’d need an accountant or solicitor?
@myindigoessence Yes there is a kind of communications gap between science and the general public; I don’t think it’s the jargon, but just the fact that science is a very specialised field (like jurisdiction). I myself would love to improve this communication, working for a newspaper or magazine or something. But laypeople that are interested in science, can pick up a popsci mag like American Scientist or whatever, whereas such thing exists about legalities etc. Anyway, I think we agree
i think this guy makes a really good point. there are so many documents out there that dont need to be so long. and get rid of fine print to. if i’m dealing with a company i want them to be direct and honest with me.
@Waranoa I do understand now (reluctantly) and know why we have to study fruit flies, I was more concerned about everyday people being able to extract that pertinent information. I guess we have mags like Scientific American that helps to put things in more readable text, and really, the priority for understanding credit card agreement is much higher than primary articles in PNAS. I’m just saying there’s a GAP in scientific literacy.
so true lol
The reading on drosophila is also to get you acquainted with reading large amounts, and coping with going to extensive amounts of knowledge to find the important bits; it’s a classical scientific skill. I find the jargon in science to be quite easy as well; yes, it is extensive, and sometimes confusing, but the terms are usually clearly defined (in the natural sciences) and definitions are easily accesible.
finowa,
unfortunately, i think that was his realization that he had just tripped up in his closing words. rather than saying “clarity, transparency and empathy” (which he had, from the beginning of his presentation, identified as the 3 factors that make up “simplicity”) … he had just said “clarity, transparency and simplicity” (rather than saying “empathy” as his last word).
[ipp-k0jlkky.bvcxzjgjghgfhfghdxgydvfsvdcszjlk;.,.,,,3nkjhhnbhv,hniuykikyyjmt tif tru hrehureuhurethurthtrehehtrhetrherhreuerueruereurureureuerrukjtjjklu yt utyutyuith y drydrfg tdrftgdefderfderfgtdrftyrfd gtyrdgtr det rtre tre tr gtrygtryrgtgrgrereetrretretretrtetgr7u8ytrytry3
Fantastic. I agree but as he alludes in his speech, many industries will be resistant b/c it is not in their favor to have informed customers/clients/business partners. This would be a battle…but well worth it!
thank god!!!!
I feel the same way about the scientific community, (as a biology grad trying to understand research papers in college). Although they sort of have an excuse, b/c nature is complexed (and we didn’t create it), there is still room for simplifying the jargon, and the text (no need to go into 25 pages of Drosophila reproduction)
Awesome!
yes, absolutely, PLEASE go through the health bill. I tried to read it, didn’t realize it was SO long.
4:15 hmm hm hmhm m’yea hmhmhm