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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 28, 2025

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

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Published on: September 5, 2019

Even lawyers do not like legalese.

Eric Martínez¹, Francis Mollica², Edward Gibson¹

¹Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|May 30, 2023

Summary

Legal writing is often complex due to tradition, not preference. Simplifying legal documents is feasible and benefits both lawyers and the public.

Keywords:

cognitive science empirical legal studies experimental jurisprudence law and psychology psycholinguistics

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Area of Science:

Legal Studies
Cognitive Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

Written laws are fundamental to modern society.
Legal documents are notoriously difficult for the public to comprehend.
The complexity of legal writing, or 'legalese,' poses a barrier to understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the reasons behind the complex writing style used in legal documents.
To test hypotheses explaining why lawyers employ a 'legalese' register.
To evaluate the impact of simplified legal language on comprehension and enforceability.

Main Methods:

Conducted two preregistered experiments involving lawyers and laypeople.
Experiment 1 compared comprehension and recall of complex 'legalese' versus simplified legal text.
Experiment 2 assessed lawyers' perceptions of enforceability and preference for simplified versus legalese contracts.

Main Results:

Lawyers, similar to laypeople, demonstrated reduced comprehension and recall of complex legal text.
Simplified contracts were rated as equally enforceable as legalese contracts by lawyers.
Lawyers found simplified contracts preferable in terms of quality, style, and client acceptance.

Conclusions:

The complex style of legal writing appears to stem from convenience and tradition rather than a deliberate preference.
Simplifying legal documents is a practical approach that offers significant benefits.
Accessible legal language would improve understanding and compliance for all individuals.