The Plain English Jury Instructions (PEJI) Project was a successful 10-year collaboration with the Massachusetts Bar Association to create a set of recommendations for judges writing jury instructions.
“Legalese” is often indecipherable to the common English speaker, often leading jurors to misunderstand their instructions and even fail to come to a just verdict. In a scientific experiment, the Ling Law Lab assisted in the reform of these instructions towards “Plain English” in order to improve justice in Massachusetts.
Hypotheses & Results
- Plain English Instructions will be easier than Current Jury Instructions.
Our results showed that participants had a significantly easier time understanding Plain English Instructions than the Current Jury Instructions. - Reading plus listening will be easier than listening alone.
We found that comprehension improved significantly when participants could read along while listening, compared to only listening. - College students will perform better than jurors.
We found that the difference in comprehension increased when a more diverse group of participants (matching US jury-eligible demographics) was tested, compared to Northeastern undergraduates.
All three of our hypotheses were proven.
Outcomes
Ultimately, the Massachusetts judiciary put the lab’s work and suggestions into a set of guidelines for judges writing jury instructions.
Professor Randall’s influence was amply cited in the revision, and she was recognized in a letter from Massachusetts Superior Court Associate Justice Kenneth Salinger.
Articles, Posters, & Presentations
2021
Randall, J., J. Cherry, & A. Montag. Collaborations in the Courthouse: Making Legal Language Accessible. Linguistics at the Crossroads of Sciences: Disciplinary Break-Up & Interdisciplinary Dialogue. Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, March.
Randall, Janet. How to Talk So Juries Will Listen. 95 Chicago-Kent Law Review, 647.
Randall, J., J. Cherry, & A. Montag. Collaborations in the Courthouse: Making Legal Language Accessible. Revue Linguistique et Referential Interculturel (Linguistics and Cultural Diversity). La Linguistique à la croisée des sciences (Linguistics at the Crossroads of Sciences). Vol. 2(1), 2-12.
2020
Randall, J., S. Bonnin, A. Robbins, S. Laureano, & Y. Xu. Factors influencing jury instruction comprehension: New insights from working memory. 33rd Annual CUNY Human Sentence Processing Conference. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, March.
2019
Randall, J., L. Butz, A. MacNeal, R. Smith, S. Bonnin, R. Semple, J. Cherry, Y. Xu, S. Laureano, & M. Snelson. Legalese, meet linguistics. International Association of Forensic Linguistics Conference. Melbourne, July.
Randall, J. The Linguistics & Law Lab: a collaborative research space. The Civil Jury Project Roundtable for Academic Advisors. NYU Law School, April.
Randall, J. In pursuit of comprehension: Law, meet Linguistics. Workshop for new judges, Flaschner Judicial Institute. Boston, May.
Randall, J. How Just is Justice? Ask a Psycholinguist. In Carlson, Katy, Charles Clifton Jr. & Janet Dean Fodor (eds.). Grammatical Approaches to Language Processing—Essays in Honor of Lyn Frazier. Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, Springer, NY, 275-308.
2018
Randall, J. “Just” Language: Linguistics & Law 101. A 2-hour workshop. Department of Linguistics & Translation. City University of Hong Kong, August.
Randall, J., S. Laureano, M. Monjarrez, K. Fiallo, A. MacNeal, Y. Xu, S. Jones, A. Isaacs, B. Rubin, A. Jones, R. Smith, & F. Reis. Law, meet Linguistics. Showcase: Expanding the Reach of Linguistics: Collaborations with Other Disciplines and Beyond. Linguistics Society of America Annual Meting. Salt Lake City, January.
Randall, J., A. MacNeal, H. Emerson, K. Fiallo, S. Laureano, & Y. Xu. How Just is Justice? Ask a Psycholinguist. Lynschrift18, an Homage to UMass Linguist Lyn Frazier. Amherst, May.
Randall, J. , A. MacNeal, Y. Xu, H. Emerson & K. Fiallo. Jargon and Justice: Using Linguistics to Improve Legal Language. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting. Salt Lake City, January.
2017
Randall, J., Y. Xu, K. Fiallo, H. Emerson & A. MacNeal. Improving Jury Instructions: The Effect of Linguistic and Procedural Factors. American Psychology-Law Society Annual Meeting. Seattle. March.
Randall, J. The preponderance of the WHAT? Legalese, meet Linguistics. The Syntax of Justice: Law, Language, Access & Exclusion Conference. Northeastern U. School of Law, Boston. March.
Randall, J., Y. Xu, K. Fiallo, & H. Emerson. Improving Jury Instructions: The Effect of Linguistic and Procedural Factors. Proceedings of the American Psychology-Law Society Annual Meeting. Seattle, March.
Randall, J., A. MacNeal, H. Emerson, K. Fiallo, S. Laureano & Y. Xu. Beyond undergraduates: Strengthening psycholinguistic studies – and their impact – using MTurk. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Austin. January.
2016
Randall, J. Y. Xu, K. Fiallo, A. MacNeal, H. Emerson, & S. Laureano. The preponderance of the WHAT?: Factors in the comprehension: Factors in the comprehension of jury instructions. Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Boston, November.
Randall, J. H. Emerson, A. Dore, J. Tan, A. MacNeal, Y. Xu, K. Fiallo, & A. McPherson. Reading along helps: an MTurk study on jury instruction comprehension. Research, Innovation, and Scholarship Expo (RISE) 2016. Northeastern University, April.
2015
Randall, J. & K. Fiallo. Improving juror comprehension: reading while listening. American Society of Trial Consultants Annual Conference. Nashville. May.
Randall, J. Improving juror comprehension: Reading while listening. Proceedings of the Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting. Portland, Oregon, January.
Randall, J. L. Graf, & N. Clarke. Improving juror comprehension: reading while listening. Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Portland, Oregon, January.
2014
Randall, J. & L. Graf. Linguistics meets “legalese”: syntax, semantics, and jury instruction reform. Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Minneapolis, January.
Randall, J. Tackling “legalese”: How linguistics can simplify legal language and increase access to justice. Language Use & Linguistic Structure (Olomouc Modern Language Series). Olomouc, 231-46.
Randall, J. & L. Graf. Linguistics meets “legalese”: syntax, semantics, and jury instruction reform. [Extended 5p. abstract]. Proceedings of the Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, January.
2013
Randall, J. Plain English Jury Instructions for Massachusetts: first steps. Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Boston, January.