Here's What Happens If You Don't Write Your Contracts in Plain English
A while back, Dick Locke, who has an entire state on his side, wrote a great post on the importance of plain English in contracts that I'm betting many of you didn't take seriously enough. To help you understand why this is very important, here's a short video from The Temp Life that describes what might happen if you don't follow his advice:
Posted by the doctor at 5/29/2010 7:00 AM 
Categories: contract management, humour, Dick Locke
Tags: The Temp Life Plain English Contracts Dick Locke
Categories: contract management, humour, Dick Locke
Tags: The Temp Life Plain English Contracts Dick Locke
I'm glad this topic popped up again. I just got the following writing jewel from Chase Bank.
"Beginning August 15, 2010 your everyday debit card purchases will not be approved if you don't have sufficient available funds and you don't have Chase Debit Card Overdraft CoverageSM.*
To decide if Chase Debit Card Overdraft Coverage is right for you, visit chase.com/coverage or stop by any Chase branch and talk to a banker. Standard overdraft fees may apply.
If you don't contact us, your everyday debit card transactions will not be approved after August 15, 2010 if you don't have sufficient available funds. Which means, your debit card purchases will be declined and you will not be charged overdraft fees for these transactions. "
I was trying to figure out whom to complain to. The doctor's blog is a good outlet.
My favorite part of the message is the sentence with an "if clause" at both the beginning and end. Second favorite is the last sentence where they try to explain the previous sentence.
This scored 45 on reading ease and 12.1 years of education. Target for writing for a Rhode Island consumer should be around 8 years. This doesn't score too badly for legal writing though. It points out that before using the grammar checkers, use some common sense.
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