Let’s be honest, reading legal documents sucks.
When I say legal documents, I am referring to those documents you would have come across or at least heard about before. Think legislation or regulations, codes, contracts, policies and others.
Reading these documents is often a bit of a drag. I often find this to be the case, even as someone who reads such documents on a regular basis as part of my work. This struggle as three strands to it:
They are not always easy to read and understand. Legal documents often contain lots of legal jargon and technical terms. I have come to understand many of this, but there are certainly times where I will come across a provision that almost seems like it is written in a foreign language.
They are too long. The length of document depends on the type of document. Legislation tends to be the longest, sometimes containing hundreds of provisions each of which could be several paragraphs long. Combined with the jargon, it can feel like it takes forever to get through a single piece of legislation.
They are not always clear. The extended length combined with the extended jargon sometimes clouds the crux of the document. I will sometimes read provision after provision and lose sight of what the document is ultimately trying to convey and what is therefore important.
That reading legal documents is often a pain is far from ideal.
These documents are important, as they describe the various rights and obligations that apply to you and others in a given situation. But when that crucial information is buried in a dense packaging of words entangled with alien concepts that take time to decipher, access to that information seems impossible. And this is even before thinking about the more difficult part, which is what actions you can take based on the obligations and rights that apply to you.
Even so, I think the ability to navigate the most tricky of legal documents is a skill that anybody can learn. There are certain principles you can follow and implement that help you to get through the task and identify the information that is most important for you. It may take a bit of time to get the hang of it, but I think investing the time is worth it given the importance of some of the legal documents you will need to read in your time, especially if you are a legal professional.
The principles and guidance that I share below are based on the time I have spent researching, writing and working on data rights over the past 10 years, and hopefully they prove valuable for you.
I should stress though that this newsletter does not constitute legal advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content in this newsletter.
The big secret when reading legal docs
Reading legal text is not the same as reading other types of text.