The Oklahoma Bar Journal August 2022

language. Simplifying text allows users to find what they need, understand what they find and use what they find to meet their needs. The use of plain language in courts leads to increased equity and procedural fairness because both represented and unrepresented parties begin, move through and end the legal process with the same oppor tunity to understand informa tion. It also builds greater trust in the legal process because unrepresented parties aren’t left wondering if they’ve missed a critical component that may have led to a different result. The National Association for Court Management notes two additional benefits of courts using plain lan guage: 1) It can lower the burden on court staff, allowing them to focus on complex issues and other court business, and 2) cases can move through the court more quickly because unrepresented

use active voice, address the reader directly and reduce the reading level. Although experts recommend aiming for a sixth to eighth-grade reading level when creating public materials, Oklahoma’s eviction sum mons reads at a 14th-grade level, meaning you likely need a college education to understand it. Only 27% of Oklahomans have a four year college degree. The modern history of the plain language movement started in 1977 with President Nixon directing the Federal Register be written in “layman’s terms” and continued through President Obama signing the Plain Language Act of 2010 that required federal agencies to write clear government commu nications the public can use and understand. Today, federal agencies are annually scored on the use of plain language in their publications by the Center for Plain Language. These strides have led to an under standing of the benefits of plain

starts, “You are hereby directed to relinquish immediately to the plain tiff herein total possession of the real property described as …” It is intim idating and complicated language that doesn’t clearly describe what is happening; however, it is import ant people understand the court process and what they need to do. Right now, many people who receive this language from the court don’t understand exactly what it means or what they are supposed to do next. This results in a high num ber of default judgments. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to bring the small claims eviction process back to a true “peo ple’s court”: plain language. Many people assume plain language simply means “dumbing down” words, but at its core, plain language means presenting information in a way that allows users to understand what they are reading the first time they read it. This means writers must employ shorter sentences,

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL