Plain, Plainer, and Plain Enough

The Supreme Court of Canada has launched a site, Representing Yourself, to assist unrepresented litigants to navigate the court process. This is a good and necessary thing. Many other courts are doing the same, so let me just pick on the top guys and leave the others to check their own work.


The Supreme Court of Canada provides a Glossary of Terms at http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/litigantportal/Glossary_e.asp that contains twenty some words--perhaps not enough.


The problem is that the Court assumes too much existing knowledge and to high a level of legal literacy in the general population. The definitions in the glossary are not plain enough. Look at the ones below. Compare the affidavit definition from the Multilingual Legal Glossary which I wrote. I think it is better but not perfect.

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Affidavit of Service

(see also “service”)

An “affidavit” intended to certify that you have served a document.

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Now, to grasp the meaning here, you have to refer to three other definitions (which may not be there) and put those ideas together: affidavit, certify, and service. And some people will be wondering exactly what a "document" is.

______________________________________ Affidavit A sworn statement in writing made under oath before a “commissioner of oaths”. __________________________________________________ Now this one requires a person to check three terms: "sworn", "oath", and "commissioner of oaths". Is it necessary to add the mention of the commissioner of oaths? The Multilingual Legal Glossary ______________________________________________
Term	affidavit
Plain Language Definition	a written statement given under oath for the purposes of a court action or other legal process

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