The call for plain English drafting has a long history. After Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill to establish elementary schools in Virginia, he forwarded a copy to legislator Joseph Cabell and included this sardonic comment:
I should apologize, perhaps, for the style of this bill. I dislike the
verbose and intricate style of the English statutes …. You, however, can
easily correct this bill to the taste of my brother lawyers, by making
every other word a “said” or “aforesaid,” and saying everything over
two or three times, so that nobody but we of the craft can untwist the
