The understandability of legal documents: Are they adequate?

Michael S. Wogalter Departmenl of Psychology North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7801 Citizens are frequently asked to make commitments by signing contracts and legal documents that frequently contain phraseology and jargon (sometimes called legalese) that highly-educated citizens often do not understand. In recent years, human factors professionals have become intimately concerned with the design of product-related documentation and safety communications (e.g., warnings), and through research have offered ways to improve these materials. However, there is apparently no human factors research on the design and evaluation of legal contracts and other similar documents. The purpose of the present research was to begin to assess some of the factors related to people's reading and understanding of legal documents. Study 1 examined the types of legal documents that people sign, how often they sign them, how carefully they read them, and whether they understand them. Ninety-two individuals were asked to complete a survey addressing these issues. While it was reported that the contracts were read moderately carefully and were understood moderately well, the levels were not as high as one would expect given the importance of the documents and the education level of the participants in this study (who had, on average, approximately two years of college). Also, 96% of the sample believed that legal documents could be improved and provided specific suggestions on how this might be accomplished. In Study 2,32 participants rated the set of potential improvements to legal documents that had been suggested by Study l's participants. The results conf111Iled the fust study's pattern of findings. Implications for average citizens' lack of comprehension of contracts and other legal documents are discussed with a specific focus on the role research might have on their improvement IN1RODUcnON People are frequently asked to sign contracts and other legal documents that are meant to bind them to specific rules. But does the average citizen really understand what they are signing? Contracts and other legal documents are often very difficult to read and may result in people making commibnents that they do not understand and may not want to make. Surprisingly, there has been virtually no research conducted to determine the factors related to reading and understanding contracts and other legal documents. The only study on legal comprehension that has specifically examined contract understandability was conducted by Scott and Suchan (1987). They examined how easily public-sector union members, officers, and first line supervisors could understand collective bargaining agreements and found that these agreements required reading comprehension skills of a least a college graduate to understand the text. Several reasons have been suggested for why legal documents are written in ways that make them so difficult lD read. Scott and Suchan (1987) note that in order to draft a contract that is acceptable to both labor and management, the parties have to compromise which often requires the use of vague language and complicated sentences. Also, Scott and Suchan (1987) note that negotiators themselves are probably accustomed to using "legalese" and that they might also lack the skills to write a readable agreement. Scott and Suchan (1987) suggest that contracts need to be written to the reading comprehension level of the intended audience.