In Brief

The Problem

Contracts that take forever to negotiate, are unclear to everyone but lawyers, and generate all too many disputes between parties.

The Causes

Legal jargon; long-winded explanations of the reasons for transactions; pages of definitions; strings of synonyms; all-cap, italicized, bolded sections; and awkward sentences filled with semicolons.

The Solution

Radically shorter “plain-language” contracts that a high schooler could understand.

What do you call a dense, overly lengthy contract that is loaded with legal jargon and virtually impossible for a nonlawyer to understand? The status quo. For the most part, the contracts used in business are long, poorly structured, and full of unnecessary and incomprehensible language.

A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2018 issue (pp.134–139) of Harvard Business Review.