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News
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Last updated 11 July 2008
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| Clarity's 25th anniversary |
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Clarity was launched in England 25 years ago, in a letter from local-government solicitor John Walton published in the Law Society's Gazette of 8 June 1983.
The first newsletter, distributed to members in August 1983, announced:
CLARITY is born. It was conceived in the correspondence columns of the Law Society's Gazette. There have been announcements of the birth in legal journals, national newspapers, Radio 4 and even the Australian press. Over
200 letters of support have been received. Most of these have been from lawyers who already believe in the aims of CLARITY. There are many more who don't. CLARITY's early childhood may be more of a struggle.
Among the messages of support it quoted one from Lord Denning:
All best wishes for success in the aims of CLARITY
- it is after my own heart.
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| Other organisations' conferences |
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| CIDB July 2008 NEW
The Construction Industry Development Board of Malaysia is holding a National Conference on Modern Legal Drafting this month. There will be a one-day version in Kuala Lumpur on 22 July and a half-day version in Penang on the 24th.
The aim is to introduce modern drafting techniques to the Malaysian construction industry and several Clarity members will be speaking: Sr Naseem Ali, Professor Peter Butt, Dr Robert Eagleson, and Judge Mark Painter.
Details are available at
conference homepage.
CIAJ September 2008
The Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice's national conference, Who really
writes the law? will be held in Ottawa on 11-12 September 2008.
A brochure with details and an application form is available in
English
and
French
versions.
CALC 2009
The next Commonwealth Law Conference, combined with the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel's conference, will be held in Hong Kong in April 2009.
Details will be posted when available on
CALC's website.
PLAIN 2009
Plain Language Association International's next conference will be held in Sydney on 15-17 October 2009.
Details will be posted when available on
PLAIN's website.
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| Eirlys Roberts CBE |
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I was sad to stumble on Eirlys's obituary in The Daily Telegraph yesterday (22 March).
A few months ago it was noticed that her subscription to Clarity had lapsed, and she was so long-standing a member, going back I think to our early days, and so enthusiastic in her support, that I feared that something was wrong. But she had moved home and I couldn't find her.
The Guardian's obituary is subtitled The mother of the modern consumer movement and co-founder of 'Which?', which gives some idea of her importance and career, but she was involved in many other things. As a young woman she had helped Robert Graves in his research for I, Claudius; during the war she served in both military and political intelligence; in 1946 and 1947 she played a robust role with the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Albania; in the 1970s she served on the Royal Commission on the Press; she was an active European.
Both obituaries mention Eirlys's commitment to plain language, and two of her articles, in Clarity issues 41 and 44, are available from the journals page of this website.
But it is for her warmth and kindness that I most remember her. I thought of her as probably in her 70s and was astonished to read that she was 97.
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| Peter Butt's recent offer |
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There was substantial demand exhausting Peter Butt's supply of the Centre for Plain Legal Language's books:
- Law Words: 30 Essays on legal words and phrases (a study of 30 legalese words and phrases, with researched suggestions for plain language equivalents)
- The Gains from Clarity: A research report on the effects of plain-language documents (an empirical study into efficiencies achieved in using plain language in legal documents).
But they are now downloadable from the "Books" of this website.
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USA Federal Rules of Civil Procedure |
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America's new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have been approved by the Supreme Court and are now in force.
The conversion of the rules into plain language took 4 years of intensive work. Professor Joseph Kimble, Clarity's immediate past president, accepted the 2007 Burton Award at the Library of Congress for his role in the project. |
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| US government to legislate for plain mortgage disclosures |
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U.S. housing officials have proposed the first major overhaul of mortgage loan disclosures in 30 years.
"It's not right that millions of consumers go to the settlement table without fully understanding the mountain of paperwork they are asked to sign and, on top of that, are expected to pay thousands of dollars in closing costs for services that they have never heard of," said Brian Montgomery, assistant secretary for housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The government's proposal would require all the main terms to be disclosed on the first page of a new, standard, 4-page, good-faith estimate.
Source: LA Times, drawn to our attention by Bill Lutz.
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