ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the improvements that plain language can bring to property statutes and documents. The language of property law renders it largely inaccessible to the general community. No aspect of modern law is more in need of reform than its language. The plain language movement insists on precision in legal drafting, but precision leavened with clarity. The plain language version must capture the legal nuances of the original. Some genuine legal terms of art are difficult to translate into plain language - difficult, because they embody overtones of meaning that take pages to explain. Plain language statutes and documents are more "efficient" than traditionally worded ones. In the United States, isolated plain language documents have been appearing since the mid-1970s. Plain language enhances the image of the legal profession, whose traditional language is at times so obscure that it has long been a source of ridicule.
