Nationally known writing expert receives six-figure grant
Austin, Texas — After a nationwide search, a group of plaintiff attorneys have selected Professor Terri LeClercq , Ph.D., to create a plain-language set of notices in class action lawsuits. LeClercq, who holds the Norman Black Professorship in Ethical Communications, will receive a $100,000 stipend to fund the project.
LeClercq, a former English professor, has taught writing and editing at the law school for 19 years and has served as an expert witness in language in numerous cases.
The attorneys for the injured class, Dennis Reich, Elaine Watson, and Newton Schwartz, decided to help future attorneys who struggle with getting members of large class-action cases to read, understand, and make decisions based on the notices they read in the newspaper or receive in the mail. The attorneys were involved in disputes arising from the case of Hayden v. Atochem, a class-action lawsuit regarding chemical contamination in Bryan, Texas. The lack of standardized notice forms proved troublesome for both the plaintiff and defense attorneys. United States District Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes, Houston, suggested that the class-member counsels set aside a portion of their settlement fees to hire a nationally-recognized expert to create standardized forms.
“We are delighted that practitioners would turn to Terri for help in making documents readable. People who receive legal notice deserve to be able to make intelligent, informed decisions. Terri is just the person to bridge the gap between legal prose and the public reader,” said University of Texas School of Law Dean Bill Powers.
She will coordinate her investigation with the Federal Judicial Center, which has proposed an amendment to Rule 23 that would require plain-language notice. Part of her task will be transmitting the suggested forms throughout the country; for example, state bar committees will be provided links to the suggested revisions so that the attorneys can use them as the basis of their own state notice revisions. She also hopes to link to the new ABA Web site, www.findlegalhelp.org so that the public can find the forms and information. Eventually, she plans for the forms to be translated into Spanish because significant numbers of class-action members throughout the country will be more likely to understand legal notice in their first language.
LeClercq is the author of several authoritative books on writing including Expert Legal Writing (1995) and Guide to Legal Writing Style (2000). Her honors include the Directors of Legal Writing’s designation as a Person of Stature, the Chicano Law Students Association’s Outstanding Professor, and the American Association of University Women’s Outstanding Young Woman in America. In 1994 the Marine Reservation Association and Marine Services Resource Center selected LeClercq to rewrite the Service Agreement between the U.S. and any vessel that contains oil and enters U.S. territorial waters.
This release was written by communications intern Sunni Brown under the supervision of the UT Law Communications department.