The Grounds of effect of readability of contract clauses on occurence contractual disputes

Abstract

It has been previously found that the readability of contractual clauses has a negative relationship with the occurrence of contractual disputes in Sri Lankan construction industry. The highly and consistently detailed clauses theoretically expected to yield lesser contractual disputes, however may give low readability level in terms of textual complexity of the provisions. Low understandability level on the other hand can obviously increase the occurrences of disputes. Readability and understandability are positively related. Thus two scenarios created a paradoxical context. It became important to find on what grounds the readability is negatively related to occurrence of disputes, because it is not a healthy context. Readability measures the difficulty of the document objectively while the understandability comes as a much essential aspects of the contextual measurements. Readability measures the ability to gain knowledge from a text, and forms a part of the understandability measurement. Reading ability is not the only factor effecting to the understandability level of the document but also readers characteristics such as prior experience, professional qualification, educational back ground, interest and personal attitudes affect it. The authors identify the major parameters affecting the understandability of the document and the determine level of those parameters in the Sri Lankan construction context to explore at what level of industry capacity this unhealthy context exist.