Can Legal Writing Be Done In Plain English? Why not? There was a time when archaic terms were deemed to be a necessary part of legal writing.
Not anymore.
Perhaps the only explanation for using archaic language in legal writing was to make it difficult for it to be understood by ordinary people.
As a result, you needed a legally trained person to explain or rather interpret what was written.
This usually attracted a small fee.
So there is a case here.
On other hand, plain language makes it easy for the legal documents to be understood by all and sundry including judges and lawyers.
If it is easily understood, would not that result in effective communication? There is another case here.
Members of the legal fraternity need to be assured that the use of sophisticated or complex language does not indicate intelligence, being very learned or wise.
Pertinent Points In Using Plain English In Legal Writing

• What would be a simple method for determining whether plain language was used in a given piece of legal writing? One test would be for the document to be easily read and understood by the driver of a judge or senior partner of a law firm.
  Therein lies the challenge.
  To take something complex, process it and re-produce it in a simple and easy form.
  To take the law, the legal principles, the facts of the case, the legal terms and communicate these in simple and effective language.
  Now, that would require intelligence and hard work.
  
• What is the process required for producing a document that cab be easily read and understood? The draft needs to be subjected to viewed and reviewed until you are satisfied that it is indeed readable.
  Remove, replace, repeat until you can go no further without sacrificing meaning.
  
• When a highly learned or qualified person uses simple language, people are usually impressed.
  They know that the person is a capable of using complex language and appreciate the fact that he or she chose to speak or write in plain language.
  There are many people who are of the view that complex language is often used to hide or mask something.
  
• The above does not mean that there is no place for legal terms and language.
  There is but the point is, it need be carried beyond a certain point.
  This is the point where the communication involves people who are not familiar with the "language"used.
  There certainly would be situations which would warrant the use of such language.
  
• It has been observed that even judges lament the fact that briefs are unnecessarily lengthy.
  After all, they too are human.
  Who would prefer labor through a 50-page brief when it could have been written in 25 or 30 pages? However, the difficulty in writing shorter briefs is that it requires more time and work.
  To appreciate this, try and summarize a five-page document into one page without sacrificing substance.
  

Proofreading And Editing Legal Writing Whether it is an affidavit, contract, brief or any other legal document, it needs to be carefully edited and proofread.
It is almost unimaginable for a legal document with words that have been wrongly spelled or wrong grammar being used.
It could happen though where the editing or proofreading is inadequate or not done carefully.
In addition to having the document checked and re-checked by the writer, it should also be checked by another person.
Given the confidentiality of such documents, this may pose a problem.
Further, time is a major constraint in preparing legal documents due to their urgency.
Using software to edit and proofread the legal writing would be an appropriate option.