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Noah,
Warning: Rant
I'm sitting here trying to translate a somewhat legal document and I find it that all legal documents are unbelievably wordy and many times unnecessary. Do lawyers/paralegal draft these so commoners would have to read it 10000x before we can understand it?
Example:
At least five days notice shall be given of an annual general meeting or any other general meeting. Every notice shall be exclusive of the day on which it is given or deemed to be given and of the day for which it is given and shall specify the place, the day and the hour of the meeting and the general nature of the business and shall be given in manner hereinafter mentioned or in such other manner if any as may be prescribed by the Company PROVIDED that a general meeting of the Company shall, whether or not the notice specified in this regulation has been given and whether or not the provisions of Article 38 have been complied with, be deemed to have been duly convened if it is so agreed.
I could've said that in:
Must give notice 5 days beforehand. Notice includes date of notice and date, time, place, and nature of meeting. all meeting must follow guideline hereinafter mentioned, or if company agrees.
/rant
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If people could write things in plain language then they wouldn't need to pay lawyers $300/hr to translate them now would they?
You better keep your mouth shut or we'll all be out of jobs!
I think its funny that they use these super huge sentences, but
sometimes it can prove costly.
"A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal's cancellation.
The controversial comma sent lawyers and telecommunications regulators scrambling for their English textbooks in a bitter 18-month dispute that serves as an expensive reminder of the importance of punctuation."