Archaic words in legal English

Ken Adams once said, ‘‘If your contracts matter and your lawyer serves up witnesseth, get your lawyer to change their ways. Or change your lawyer.’’ (See his blog post here)

I was reminded of this recently, when reviewing a legal document which contained the word ‘notwithstanding’. My daughter came into my office and saw the document on my screen. She said ‘I know that word, ‘notwithstanding’. Shakespeare used that in 'Twelfth Night'’.

Legal documents should be written in modern English, not the archaic language of Shakespeare!  Modern, plain English alternatives for ‘notwithstanding’ are ‘despite’ or ‘although’. The Adobe Legal Department Style Guide contains a useful list of plain English alternatives for other archaic words.