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To extend this L.O.A.D. point, the worst, most unreadable contracts are drafted by nonlawyer paraprofessionals deputized by their organizations to patchwork pre

To extend this L.O.A.D. point, the worst, most unreadable contracts are drafted by nonlawyer paraprofessionals deputized by their organizations to patchwork previous contracts that may have been somewhat readable, into a Frankenstein mess. It's somewhat akin to assigning the office manager to write software code. Businesses do it because they think contracts should be simple so anyone can write them adequately. Those organizations are half right.

klabb3 4y ago
> Businesses do it because they think contracts should be simple so anyone can write them adequately. Those organizations are half right. I can empathize with writing contracts being hard. However, reading them should be easy. Ironically, writing something that is easy to read is hard. If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter
- pas 4y ago
  At the same time it's not unreasonable to require roughly the same amount of time from the reader, as in the same amount of effort is needed to grasp the concepts written. Language is very malleable, and to counteract this it's imperative to use structured writing, detail the model of the concept being communicated, then give ample examples and counter-examples to clarify the model and thus the concept itself. It's crazy to expect that a well-written sentence will be read just as well without the same context that the drafter(s) had. Yet we are very allergic to giving examples, because that would introduce [more pages to complain about politicians voting on them not reading] aaaaaand more somehow ambiguity. (Oh right, we're talking about this because otherwise statutes and their clarity and interpretations are so unambiguous!)
  - dctoedt 4y ago
    > Yet we are very allergic to giving examples I encourage my contract-drafting students to (judiciously) include examples — and of course I show some examples of using examples. [0] [0] https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Drafting-2021-01-22.html#illustrative-examples-and-sample-calculations https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Draftin...
Spooky23 4y ago
I worked in an organization like this and 100% agree. I compared it to COBOL in legacy systems. One contract person (not attorney) had a library of categorized bullshit dating back to the late 1980s. The dude would paste them in like LEGO bricks. The guy retired like a decade ago and some of his stuff is still lurking in RFP templates.

klabb3 4y ago

> Businesses do it because they think contracts should be simple so anyone can write them adequately. Those organizations are half right. I can empathize with writing contracts being hard. However, reading them should be easy. Ironically, writing something that is easy to read is hard. If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter

pas 4y ago
At the same time it's not unreasonable to require roughly the same amount of time from the reader, as in the same amount of effort is needed to grasp the concepts written. Language is very malleable, and to counteract this it's imperative to use structured writing, detail the model of the concept being communicated, then give ample examples and counter-examples to clarify the model and thus the concept itself. It's crazy to expect that a well-written sentence will be read just as well without the same context that the drafter(s) had. Yet we are very allergic to giving examples, because that would introduce [more pages to complain about politicians voting on them not reading] aaaaaand more somehow ambiguity. (Oh right, we're talking about this because otherwise statutes and their clarity and interpretations are so unambiguous!)
- dctoedt 4y ago
  > Yet we are very allergic to giving examples I encourage my contract-drafting students to (judiciously) include examples — and of course I show some examples of using examples. [0] [0] https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Drafting-2021-01-22.html#illustrative-examples-and-sample-calculations https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Draftin...

Spooky23 4y ago

I worked in an organization like this and 100% agree. I compared it to COBOL in legacy systems. One contract person (not attorney) had a library of categorized bullshit dating back to the late 1980s. The dude would paste them in like LEGO bricks. The guy retired like a decade ago and some of his stuff is still lurking in RFP templates.