The case for plain language is compelling. Plain language advocates consider legalese to be outmoded and undemocratic People are entitled to understand the laws that bind them and detail their rights and obligations.

To be legible, legal writing must be logically organized as well as concise. The Napoleonic Code, introduced more than two centuries ago, was a model of clarity and conciseness compared to today’s laws. The average sentence included between 15 and 25 words.

Some countries are again trying to simplify how their laws are written. Australia’s tax laws, for example, now include graphs, charts and tables to assist readers. Plain language advocates in Canada would like to see something similar adopted here.

In the meantime, a number of plain language legal information tools have gained popularity in recent years. One of the most successful is Éducaloi, a website that informs Quebecers of their rights and obligations by providing legal information in everyday language, from tenants’ rights to estate matters.  Though they first scoffed at the site’s utility, lawyers are now among Educaloi’s most enthusiastic repeat users.

Nimonik is doing the same with environmental legislation, by organizing legal requirements thematically and giving clear explanations on each of them.  At Nimonik we struggle daily with the challenge of writing in a way that is technically accurate and understandable.  Even so, it’s important we keep at it. A system of laws that its citizens cannot understand will hardly ensure the respect of the rule of law.

On December 2, I will be giving a 10 minute presentation on the new Nimonik and more generally, on using web 2.0 in traditional industrial companies. The talk will take place at Station-C on St. Laurent, details here.

The venue for the talk is the monthly Tech Start-Up event, where Montréal entrepreneurs, investors and technology people meet to exchange ideas. We really hope to see you there (snacks and drinks provided).

UK writer and consultant, Richard Susskind, considered by many to be the world’s pre-eminent legal futurist, is coming out with a new book, The End of Lawyers?, in December. It’s a sequel to his 1996 best-seller, The Future of Law, in which Susskind describes presciently how IT would radically change the practice of law and the administration of justice. Many of his projections came true, much to the despair of many a law firm managing partner.

At conferences around the world, Susskind is now describing a world in which, legal services are following an evolutionary trajectory from “bespoke” services —  meaning custom-made to the client’s specifications — to the systemization of services.

The problem with bespoke services is that it often involves reinventing the wheel over and over again. Consider the update of an environmental legal register. Hiring a junior lawyer at $200 an hour to do the work from scratch every time is not going to be cheap. But by moving from bespoke to systemization and packaged services, it’s possible to deliver much cheaper legal services.

This is not to say that a world without lawyers is upon us. Only that technology-based legal information can now be of service to those historically shut out of legal information sources — namely small and medium businesses.

Nimonik is among the new players from outside the legal industry using innovative and scalable ways to focus on latent needs in the marketplace. Using our online services, our clients can have a cheaper access to the law.

Another way in which technology is altering the delivery of legal services is by embedding law in processes, something Nimonik is trying to achieve by helping keep its clients’ environmental regulatory registers automatically up-to-date. The day isn’t far off when large-scale automation of environmental compliance will be possible.

From TED: “For almost three decades, John Francis has been a planetwalker, traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 10 of those years, wthout speaking). A funny, thoughtful talk with occasional banjo.”