PRINTER'S NO. 2575
No. 2071 Session of 1981
INTRODUCED BY KUKOVICH, BURNS, PISTELLA, WAMBACH, TELEK, IRVIS,
DeWEESE, COHEN, DEAL, WACHOB, DAWIDA, BELFANTI, BLAUM,
MICHLOVIC, KOWALYSHYN, VAN HORNE, MRKONIC, FISCHER, ALDEN,
TIGUE, FARGO, PETRONE, HOEFFEL, ZWIKL AND LIVENGOOD,
NOVEMBER 18, 1981
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS AND COMMERCE,
NOVEMBER 18, 1981
AN ACT
1 Requiring all consumer contracts to be written in plain English
2 language.
3 TABLE OF CONTENTS
4 Section 1. Short title.
5 Section 2. Legislative findings and intent.
6 Section 3. Definitions.
7 Section 4. Application of act.
8 Section 5. Tests of readability.
9 Section 6. Guidelines for averaging sentences and
10 syllables.
11 Section 7. Damages, other remedies and enforcement.
12 Section 8. Limitations on liability.
13 Section 9. Language required by other law.
14 Section 10. Construction of consumer contract provisions.
15 Section 11. Other rights and defenses preserved.
16 Section 12. Effective date.
1 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
2 hereby enacts as follows:
3 Section 1. Short title.
4 This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Plain
5 Language Consumer Contract Act."
6 Section 2. Legislative findings and intent.
7 (a) Legislative findings.--The General Assembly finds that
8 most consumer contracts are written and arranged in a way that
9 makes them hard for consumer to understand. Competition would be
10 aided if these contracts were easier to understand.
11 (b) Legislative intent.--By passing this act, the General
12 Assembly requires the writing of consumer contracts in plain
13 language. This act will protect consumers from making contracts
14 that they do not understand. It will make it easier for
15 consumers to know their rights and duties under those contracts.
16 This act shall be liberally construed to protect consumers.
17 Section 3. Definitions.
18 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
19 have, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the
20 meanings given to them in this section:
21 "Consumer." A man or woman who borrows, buys, leases, or
22 obtains credit, money, services, or property under a consumer
23 contract.
24 "Consumer contract" or "contract". A written agreement made
25 mainly for personal, family, or household purposes in which a
26 man or woman does any of the following:
27 (1) Borrows money.
28 (2) Buy, lease, or rent for cash or on credit personal
29 property, real property, or services.
30 (3) Obtain credit.
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1 (4) Obtain insurance coverage. (This act also applies to
2 the statements of a group insurance policy that are given out
3 to members.)
4 Section 4. Application of act.
5 (a) General application.--This act applies to all consumer
6 contracts that are made, solicited, or intended to be performed
7 in this Commonwealth.
8 (b) Exclusions.--This act does not apply to the following:
9 (1) Property descriptions in deeds and mortgages, real
10 estate certificates of title, and title insurance contracts.
11 (2) Contracts to buy securities.
12 Section 5. Tests of readability.
13 (a) General rule.--All consumer contracts made or renewed
14 after the effective date of this act shall be written and
15 organized so they are easy to read and understand.
16 (b) Language requirements.--A contract must pass all six of
17 the following language tests.
18 (1) The contract as a whole has sentences with an
19 average of no more than 20 words.
20 (2) It has words with an average of no more than 1.5
21 syllables.
22 (3) It excludes technical legal words, Latin words,
23 archaic English, words specially defined in the consumer
24 contract, or common words used in a specialized legal sense.
25 (4) It uses only personal pronouns, such as we or you,
26 when referring to parties in the contract.
27 (5) It does not have sentences with double negatives or
28 exceptions to exceptions.
29 (6) It does not have bare references to other provisions
30 in the same contract, to outside documents, or to laws of any
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1 type. References shall clearly describe their substance.
2 (c) Visual requirements.--A contract shall pass all four of
3 the following visual tests:
4 (1) The type is at least 10 point in size.
5 (2) It has line length, column width, margins, and
6 spacing between lines and paragraphs which make the contract
7 easy to read.
8 (3) It captions each section in boldface type of at
9 least 12 point in size. If the contract is typed, the
10 captions are underlined.
11 (4) It uses ink which contrasts sharply with the paper.
12 (d) Consumer restrictions highlighted.--
13 (1) A contract shall have a statement on its front page
14 that highlights all of the following items:
15 (i) Any part of the contract that restricts or
16 reduces a consumer's rights.
17 (ii) Any part of the contract that protects only the
18 seller, insurer, creditor, or lessor.
19 (2) The highlighted statement shall be in 10 point
20 boldface type and not in all capitals. It shall have this
21 caption in all capitals: "PLEASE READ THIS" in 12 point
22 boldface type. If the contract is typed, the text of the
23 statement shall be underlined and the caption "PLEASE READ
24 THIS" in all capitals.
25 (3) This highlighted statement shall pass both of the
26 following tests:
27 (i) Sentence length shall average no more than 15
28 words.
29 (ii) Word length shall average no more than 1.33
30 syllables.
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1 (4) Any part of the contract that shall be highlighted
2 under clause (1) but is not highlighted so as to meet the
3 tests of clauses (2) and (3), is void.
4 Section 6. Guidelines for averaging sentences and syllables.
5 (a) General guidelines.--The following guidelines are to be
6 used to check compliance with the tests of readability set out
7 in section 5.
8 (1) Do not count words or numbers used in titles,
9 headings, section and paragraph numbers, date lines, and
10 signature lines. Do not count language required by statute,
11 regulation or rule.
12 (2) A "sentence" is a unit of thought that ends with a
13 period, question mark or exclamation point. Disregard
14 paragraph breaks, colons, semicolons, dashes or capitals
15 within a sentence.
16 (3) A "syllable" is a unit of spoken language made up of
17 one or more letters of a word, as the word is divided by any
18 dictionary. County the syllables in words as they are
19 pronounced. County abbreviations, figures and symbols as one-
20 syllable words. If there are two or more accepted ways to
21 pronounce a word, use the one with fewer syllables.
22 (b) How to average words per sentence.--County the total
23 number of words and sentences in the whole contract, except for
24 the items listed in section 6(a)(1). Then divide the number of
25 words by the number of sentences. This gives you the average
26 number of words per sentence.
27 (c) How to average syllables per word.--County the total
28 number of syllables and words in the whole contract, except for
29 the items listed in section 6(a)(1). The divide the number of
30 syllables by the number of words. This gives you the average
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1 number of syllables per word.
2 Section 7. Damages, other remedies and enforcement.
3 (a) Damages and other remedies.--Any creditor, lessor,
4 insurer, or seller who does not comply with the tests of
5 readability set out in section 5 with respect to any consumer,
6 is liable to that consumer for all of these items:
7 (1) Actual damages, if any.
8 (2) Statutory damages of $500. But if the total amount
9 of the contract is less than $500, the statutory damages are
10 the total amount of the contract.
11 (3) Court costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
12 (4) Any equitable and other relief that the court thinks
13 necessary and proper.
14 (b) Enforcement.--The Attorney General or a district
15 attorney may bring an action in the name of the Commonwealth
16 against any person to enforce this act.
17 Section 8. Limitations on liability.
18 (a) Limitations generally.--There shall be no liability
19 under section 7 if any of the following occur.
20 (1) The contract has been carried out by all the parties
21 or has expired.
22 (2) The contract was drawn up by only the consumer.
23 (3) The creditor, seller, insurer, or lessor shows by a
24 preponderance of the evidence that its violation of the act
25 was not intentional and that the violation was the result of
26 a good faith clerical error. This error must have happened in
27 spite of the use of reasonable procedures that were designed
28 to avoid this type of error.
29 (b) Time limit for starting a lawsuit.--A lawsuit under this
30 act shall be started within four years of the date on which the
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1 contract was last signed.
2 Section 9. Language required by other law.
3 The use of specific language required by Federal or State
4 statute, regulation, or rule does not violate this act. This
5 language shall be excluded when using the tests of readability
6 set out in section 5.
7 Section 10. Construction of consumer contract provisions.
8 (a) Contract provisions that violate the act.--Any part of a
9 contract that does not pass the tests of readability set out in
10 section 5 is void as used against a consumer. This subsection
11 shall not apply to the averages of sentences and syllables.
12 (b) Waiver of rights invalid.--A consumer cannot waive the
13 rights given by this act. Such a waiver is void.
14 Section 11. Other rights and defenses preserved.
15 A consumer may make any claim or raise any defense that he or
16 she could have used if this act were not in effect.
17 Section 12. Effective date.
18 This act shall take effect in one year.
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