Abstract
The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) came into full force in April 2011. An important corollary
of this Act, and the National Credit Act (NCA) of 2005 as well, is the obligation that consumer
documents must be in plain language. It has long been debated whether it is possible to make
legal documents available in plain language for lay consumption. The aim of this study is to
investigate the successes and failures of the plain language project five years after the CPA
became operational. This study relies on data collected through focus group interviews with
bank staff members in both language units and legal divisions.
Findings indicate that, in general, both legal and language practitioners concur that legal
documents can be simplified under certain conditions, although there is less consensus about
the degree of simplification and the types of legal documents that can be simplified.
Interviewees experience difficulty with vagueness of the plain language obligation. Findings
also show that legal practitioners are concerned about prejudicing the legal status of documents
and are reluctant to deviate from traditional styles of drafting...