Book review: Chris Heffer, Frances Rock and John Conley (eds), Legal-Lay Communication: Textual Travels in the Law

By the book review of 'Legal-Lay Communication', published by Oxford University Press, a particular perspective on communication between legal professionals and those they encounter in their work is provided, by paying special attention to the transformation and ‘travel’ of texts as part of that communication. The three editors of the book reviewed, joining their different background and expertise in language and law, combine a range of interesting perspectives on the legal-lay communication theme with a specific theoretical focus on how texts ‘travel’ through the legal process. By ‘legal-lay communication’ we refer here to those nodes of interaction where the legal world meets the everyday life world, which may on the one hand involve people acting for the legal system - from police call-handlers to judges -, on the other hand interact with people encountering the legal process in a lay role, for example, as witnesses and suspects.