Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

>And so people don't read them. You can't.

It's even worse than you say. Standard english words have secondary meanings as legalese. You might read "The cat sat it the box" and think "Ok, I know what this means" or maybe look up the bits you don't know in a dictionary, only later to learn that "sat" has a special legal meaning in your jurisdiction.

You literally can't read these yourself because everything has special hidden meanings that you won't even know exist without special training.




To offer a real life example, in Hurst v. W.J. Lake & Co., the court ruled that 49.5% was not "less than 50%" because of "the peculiar meaning attached to the words" by the trade in question.

tldr casebrief: https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/contracts/outline-contra...

More details & quotes: https://h2o.law.harvard.edu/collages/2981




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: