Thursday, October 18, 2007 'Bad English' can be problem in court: Legarda By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
LAWYER Katrina Legarda deplored why justice is not served all because of poor English communication between judges and lawyers.
"And this happens even in the Supreme Court where lawyers cannot articulate their defenses and judges who cannot appreciate straight and correct English," Legarda said.
Made famous by many celebrated cases involving child and women molestation, Legarda is here in Bacolod upon the invitation of the Integrated Bar Philippines (IBP), Negros Chapter.
The topic assigned to her is "Effective Legal Writing," and Legarda explained that, "Writing cannot be detached from speaking."
"This is the reason why legal documents are such a bore and judges are human beings, too, that may not have the strength in deciphering badly written arguments," Legarda added.
She stressed, "You must have read many of these voluminous legal documents using 'legal parlance,' the grammar is terrible and one sentence is elaborated into an essay,"
"I cannot blame the non-lawyers for finding what we lawyers write as senseless. We, lawyers must learn how to communicate even to little kids as justice belonged to them as well." Legarda said.
"Lawyers, do not insist on the use of 'legalese.' This is gobbledygook for 99 percent of the human race. The genius of a lawyer is found when he or she can write in short, simple, understandable and grammatically correct English," she also said.
She warned, "Judges are human beings, too, who get bored and tired. So bad English might mean losing a case, therefore, depriving a client of justice."
Turning to judges, Legarda noted that there are only few judges who can write and speak well and worst who cannot appreciate the wisdom of a well written and spoken argument.
"Again, justice is not served and this is worst because they decide on people's lives. Now, lawyers must learn the dynamics of communication," Legarda said.
"Remember, there are more judges who cannot communicate well than those who can. We better be careful of this, also," she added.
