Legal English

Legal English has been referred to as a "sublanguage". This term suggests that legal English differs from ordinary language in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as other linguistic features. Specialized use of certain terms and linguistic patterns govern the teaching of legal language: meaning that "we study legal language as a kind of second language, a specialized use of vocabulary, phrases, and syntax that helps us to communicate more easily with each other".

The term legalese, on the other hand, is a pejorative term associated with a traditional style of legal writing that is part of this specialized discourse of lawyers: communication that "lay readers cannot readily comprehend". It describes poor legal writing that is cluttered, wordy, indirect, and uses unnecessary technical words or phrases. Historically, legalese is language a lawyer might use in drafting a contract or a pleading but would not use in ordinary conversation. For this reason, the traditional style of legal writing has been labeled reader-unfriendly. Proponents of plain language argue that legal "writing style should not vary from task to task or audience to audience...; whatever lawyers write must be Clear, Correct, Concise, and Complete". These 4 Cs describe "characteristics of good legal writing style" in the United States.