Whereas in 1988, The Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Bankers Association established a Joint Committee on Plain Language Documentation;

Whereas the mandate of the Joint Committee was to assess the use of English and French plain language in the legal profession and the financial services industry, to identify barriers to the use of plain language, to develop one or more prototype banking documents, and to make recommendations relating to the greater use of plain language in legal and financial services documents;

Whereas the Report of the Joint Committee was received by Council at the 1990 Annual Meeting;

Be it resolved that The Canadian Bar Association adopt the following recommendations, contained in the Report of the Joint Committee:

The Legal Profession
2. Canadian law schools and Bar Admissions courses should be urged to include a plain language drafting course in their curriculum in an effort to instruct law students on how to write better, more plainly, and more clearly.
3. Law Societies and bar associations should design and offer Continuing Legal Education courses on writing in plain language.

The Banks
4. Canadian Banks and other large organizations should require that their lawyers draft documents in plain language style.
5. Each large organization should develop a plain language policy in the writing of its forms and documents that are intended for consumer use.
6. The organization should appoint a small interdisciplinary committee to develop consumer forms. The first draft of any consumer form in an organization should be done by a person with plain language drafting training and experience.
7. Banks and other large organizations should ensure that all employees have access to writing skills courses that stress plain writing techniques, and should encourage their employees to take these courses.

Governments
8. The Joint Committee urges all governments in Canada to adopt plain language techniques in the drafting of legislation, regulations, and government forms, and in so doing, to set an example for commercial practice.

The Plain Language Coalition
9. Both CBA's should adopt a Joint Statement of Principles stressing the need for plain language documentation, undertaking to promote plain language documentation within their memberships and throughout the Canadian community, and inviting other segments of the business, legal community, and government to adhere to the Joint Statement of Principle.
10. Industry associations, law firms, and government departments that adhere to the Joint Statement of Principles, would, in so doing, become members of "The Canadian Coalition For Plain Legal Language"/"La coalition canadienne pour la lisibilite juridique".

A list of the members of this coalition should be published from time to time by the Canadian Legal Information Centre.

11. With the assistance of the Canadian Legal Information Centre, the Coalition should advocate the increased use of plain language drafting in Canada and serve as a resource to its members in the drafting of plain language documentation.

CBA Plain Language Sections

Note: The Canadian Legal Information Centre was closed in 1993. The Plain Language Coalition has not been formed. Several provincial branches of the Canadian Bar Association have formed working groups on plain language.

The CBA WWW site maintains an e-mail list on plain language for persons who qualify to be members of the Canadian Bar Association (although they need not be members). If you would like to be added to the list or make an inquiry, contact Cheryl M. Stephens, list moderator, at raporter@web.net or click here | Re PLAINL Listserv |