Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty with legal language
Something I think would be helpful would be to replace a "definitions" section with a "terms" section, with three subsections:General Terms of Art provide a vernacular English explanation for widely-used legal terms within the section. Example: "Joint tenants. A legal term meaning that the tenants not only hold a single undivided parcel together, but that ownership of the property passes to the other tenants if one tenant dies. If a tenant sells their interest, and the remaining tenants entered into a joint tenancy at the same time and on the same deed, the remaining tenants remain as joint tenants."Specific Terms of Art describe terms of art used in the particular contract or act. An example would be "protected health information" or "covered entity" in the context of HIPAA.Terms of Clarification are standard vernacular English terms that, for the sake of reducing frivolous navel-gazing, are defined precisely. An example would be "uniformed services" within Title 10, or "machine gun" in the Gun Control Act.A layman could read the two terms of art sections and should be able to understand most statutes or contracts.A lawyer familiar with the general terms of art could read the specific terms of art and understand most statutes or contracts.Terms of clarification could be consulted only if the precise scope of a term becomes an issue.