PLAIN LANGUAGE

Modern lawyers recognise the benefits of plain language as an important element of good legal writing.

I offer my clients translations from Dutch into plain English, even where the original is drafted in more ‘traditional’ legalese. The most entangled sentence structures and sometimes archaic vocabulary can be rendered into an uncluttered, easy-to-read text. Without losing the meaning.

Turning a convoluted monolingual text into clear and unambiguous language is a translation in itself. Converting a complicated Dutch legal text into plain legal English is effectively a dual translation requiring knowledge of subject matter and a clear writing style.

If I have done my job well, it will look easy. Don’t be fooled. It’s more difficult to simplify than to complicate: ‘plain language’ legal translation takes skill, work and experience. But the end result is worth it.

The biggest problem with communication is the illusion
that it has been accomplished
George Bernard Shaw