The Fine Print

The Law Faculty of the University of Cape Town is about to give away valuable trade secrets. In August the university is holding intensive three-day seminars to teach lay people how to decipher legalese; or, at least, the legalese found in commercial contracts. According to South Africa's Independent Online, the course will "focus on the building blocks of legal language: the words, technical expressions, long sentences and complicated structures."

Let's hope the Law Faculty is also teaching its law students how to write in plain English, so that some day in the future consumers don't need a three-day course to read them.