Ambiguity is the last thing you need

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of clear, unambiguous legal language in contracts to prevent disputes, reduce litigation, and ensure fairness, especially in situations with power imbalances.

Contribution

It highlights the persistent issue of ambiguity in legal contracts and advocates for strategies to minimize vague language to improve legal clarity.

Findings

Ambiguity leads to frequent legal disputes.

Plain language reduces misinterpretation.

Legal cases often hinge on ambiguous wording.

Abstract

Clear legal language forms the backbone of a contract for numerous reasons. Disputes often arise between contract parties where ambiguous language has been used and parties often disagree on the meaning or effect of the words. Unambiguous language can also be important where there is an imbalance of bargaining strength between the parties, for instance where a business is contracting with a consumer, where the law actually requires plain language to be used. Thus, plain language minimises misinterpretation and prevents future litigation. Contracts become ambiguous when the language used is vague, imprecise, or open to multiple interpretations and this is due to the vast number of synonyms in the English Language which creates differences in interpretation between the meaning of the language. Ambiguity has always formed a prevalent issue in case-law, with a large percentage of cases based on ambiguous language. Thus, from an outside perspective the legal sector should look forward to ways of reducing this.