Lawyer blogs : A bridge to lay people, not a tool to alienate them

Telling non lawyers who don’t know what a ‘blawg’ is to go look it up seems the height of arrogance and the stuff that makes the public hate lawyers. But that’s exactly what the editor of the Blawg Review says to do. “…[I]f you encounter someone who doesn’t know what blawg means, kindly tell them to google it.”

Not trying to be the language police, but lawyers have much to gain by being more like non-lawyers than expecting non-lawyers to understand our world and language. In a 2002 ABA study on the poor reputation of lawyers, consumers recommended that we lawyers do a better job communicating with people and that we create Internet legal resources for people.

Legal blogs are a perfect answer to the public’s request. Why lead with more legalese? As lawyers, why not call our blogs by the same name everyone else uses? Wouldn’t it be step in the right direction?