Would you say that to your mother-in-law?

"I look forward to hearing from you once you have had an opportunity to review the options set out above. Should you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me. Kind regards, Kate." Send.

Then I realised the email I had just propelled into the ether was to my best friend of 25 years, its purpose was to arrange drinks for Friday night. In hindsight, signing
off in such a manner was too official.

It made me think. If this was too formal for a friend, why should such language be de rigueur when writing to clients? They are, after all, human too. Well, most of them are anyway. I am not for one moment suggesting that phrases such as "That's great :-)" should become common place in exchanges with clients, but signing off with "Let me know if you have any questions" would not cause our clients to run to the hills or exclaim at our audacity. The result is far more likely to be
that they understand what we are saying, which can only be
a good thing.

The support for using plain English by the profession is long-standing and well documented. The difficulty is turning it from the exception into the norm by finding a simple way of breaking the habit. So, I propose introducing the mother-in-law test: if you would not say it to your partner's mum, do not say it to your client.

Yours sincerely

It's the ideal benchmark. The test can be applied in equal measure to assess what's too formal and too informal. If you were invited to Sunday lunch, replying with "We sincerely wish that we could join you for lunch but regrettably our availability is limited", you would probably get "Is that a yes or a no?" in return.

Conversely, you would certainly regret: "No, there are other things we would prefer to do on Sunday." You would probably say: "We already have plans but how about next week?"

Armed with the mother-in-law test, we can take the next step in the right direction.

It is, of course, just a simple reminder to communicate with clients in the same way that we do with the other people in our lives. It should not be that difficult and is definitely worth the effort.

It is widely accepted that our clients would welcome a simplified approach to legal writing and I, for one, look forward to the day when family and friends no longer thrust a letter or document into my hands while saying: "My lawyer has sent this to me. Can you tell me what it means?"

Surely, we can't expect clients with a firm grasp of English to need a translator.

As for the response from my best friend, she wrote: "Kate, thank you for your email. I have considered each option in turn. My initial preference was for the White Swan but, on reflection, I would be equally as happy if we were to meet at the Rising Sun. Are you available for lunch on Wednesday to discuss further? Jemma."

It will come as no surprise that she too is a solicitor. SJ

Kate Davies is a solicitor
at Wedlake Bell

www.wedlakebell.com