Reading Level of the Law 6 March 2018

With open access to law becoming a more and more important issue over the recent years, we consider open access at a more fundamental level. Given an ideal scenario where general audience unrestricted access to the best legal libraries, how much of the law can they hope to understand?

The Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level readability tests are readability tests designed to indicate how difficult a passage in English is to understand. These readability tests are used extensively in the field of education. The results present a score as a U.S. grade level, making it easier for teachers, parents, librarians, and others to judge the readability level of various books and texts.

Some states specify readability standards for insurance policies to safeguard customers assuring policies are written in language most can understand.

We analyzed all statutes in our library according to the two readability tests and calcuated grade level metrics to see how states compare on the reading grade level of their law.