Lawyers Try to Make It Perfectly Clear
More and more lawyers are coming to realize that it is in their best interest to educate consumers about legal issues in easy-to-understand language.
In the past, some lawyers feared that consumers might use oversimplified legal information incorrectly and wind up hurting themselves by experimenting with self-help legal methods, such as writing their own complex wills or drafting their own business contracts.
Such consumer-law pioneers as Nolo Press, a Berkeley, Calif.-based company that publishes self-help legal books and also has a monthly newspaper about everyday legal issues, were held in low esteem by the legal establishment.
Changing Field
But now that seems to be changing. As the lawyer population expands and becomes more competitive, and as the public grows increasingly frustrated with legal technicalities it doesn’t understand, lawyers are beginning to realize that it makes good business sense to market themselves and their product--legal advice and information--in simple, clear, understandable English.
A recent example is a new monthly magazine called Everyday Law, published by the American Trial Lawyers Assn. When it began publication earlier this year, it was available only by subscription. This month, the magazine will be available at newsstands and bookstores for the first time. It sells for $3 a copy. (Subscription rate is $28 per year; write Everyday Law, 5615 W. Cermak Road, Cicero, Ill. 60650.)
This month’s issue begins its opening editorial by stressing the impact of legal issues on everyday life: “The law deals mainly with how we relate to other people, to our parents, our children, the people we buy from, the people we sell to, our guests, our hosts and whole nations of other people.”
Quoting a federal judge, the editorial explains: “Law is not a game of chance where the spoils go to the alert and crafty. It is rather a system devised by civilized society to settle peaceably and equitably disputes between human beings.”
This month’s issue covers such topics as the legal rights of grandparents to visit their grandchildren, the legal enforceability of employee handbooks, how to testify before Congress, what happens if someone steals the song you write and how the law can be used against dangerous or defective toys, an especially timely topic this season.
(The article on toys has some references worth repeating for those of you who have a complaint about a toy: The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a toll-free hot line, (800) 638-CPSC, and Toy Manufacturers of America is also interested in problems with particular toys. TMA is at 200 5th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010, (212) 675-1141.)
The magazine is weak graphically and needs more imagination in its display and presentation of stories. Some of the articles are too legalistic in style and could be written in more easily understandable English, but the idea of a complete monthly magazine devoted to consumer-law issues is long past due.
(A Los Angeles lawyer started a free monthly tabloid newspaper on law several years ago, but it couldn’t attract enough advertisers to survive. This new magazine is supported by the Trial Lawyers Assn. as a public service.)
For several years, the State Bar of California has published educational pamphlets about such subjects as renters’ legal rights, buying a home and estate planning. For their clients, many lawyers now publish newsletters that report the latest news in specialized legal fields, and others have hired public relations consultants to help them explain legal niceties in language we can all understand.
When readers are informed about their legal rights and when lawyers seem more approachable and understandable, both the reading public and the legal profession benefit.
Klein cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about the law. Do not telephone. Write to Jeffrey S. Klein, Legal VIEW, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.
