James Stratman - A Forensic Linguistic Approach to Legal Disclosures: ERISA Cash Balance Conversion Cases and the Contextual Dynamics of Deception

This book is a scholarly work of forensic linguistics that demonstrates how the principles of Gricean pragmatics and their recent elaboration in Information Manipulation Theory (IMT) can be of use to courts faced with deciding cases of allegedly fraudulent disclosure documents. The usual goal of legal rules for disclosure documents is not merely to prevent lying but other forms of deception as well. In particular, the goal of these rules is to force the communicator to reveal information that could cause material harm to certain receivers, harms that the communicator, for various reasons of self-interest, might prefer to keep secret or hidden. Because IMT and the Gricean framework have seldom been used in published studies to investigate legally mandated disclosure documents aimed at laypersons, this book seeks to enrich current explications of the rhetorical workings of deceptive disclosures within the broader Gricean tradition of pragmatics. The book questions the fundamental relationships among Grices maxims as well as the much-circulated notion that violation of some maxims is more deceptive and more immoral than violations of others. In addition, the book also attempts to show how various other theories and research in discourse linguistics and reading comprehension can be used to support IMT analyses in addressing the discourse-processing issues unique to legally required disclosure texts. In this way the book contributes to the larger dual mission of the field of forensic linguistics, which is both to understand and to improve courts impact on social justice.

James F. Stratman is associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver, USA.

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15A Forensic Linguistic Approach to Legal Disclosures

ERISA Cash Balance Conversion Cases and the Contextual Dynamics of Deception

James F. Stratman

James F. Stratman

First published 2016
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 Taylor & Francis

The right of James F. Stratman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stratman, James F., author.
A forensic linguistic approach to legal disclosures : ERISA cash balance conversion cases and the contextual dynamics of deception / by James F. Stratman.
pages cm (Routledge studies in linguistics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Pension trustsLaw and legislationUnited States.2.United States. Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.3.Disclosure of informationLaw and legislationUnited States.4.Pension trustsLaw and legislationUnited StatesLanguage.5.Forensic linguisticsUnited States.6.Discourse analysisUnited States.I.Title.
KF3512.S76 2015
345.73'0263dc232015021675

ISBN: 978-1-138-92005-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68742-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

For my father, Anthony F. Stratman

I would first like to thank Mr. Stephen R. Bruce (Stephen R. Bruce Law Offices, Washington, DC) not only for providing invaluable critical comments and detailed suggestions on the first draft of this project but more deeply for the many stimulating conversations about Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) disclosure rules, cases, and disclosure documents that we have shared over the years. Stephens encyclopedic scholarly work, Pension Claims: Rights and Obligations (2nd ed., 1993) is well-known and respected by thousands of ERISA advocates and researchers. Much of what I hope I have gotten right in the present work is due to his perception and experience, whereas any missteps are all my own. I would also like to thank Mr. David Steelman (of Steelman, Gaunt & Horsefield, in Rolla, Missouri) for similar help in reviewing my first draft and for offering thoughtful and candid appraisals of my arguments. I know that my work is much better for his advice and insights. The late Peter M. Tiersma, Honorable William Matthew Byrne chair and professor of law at the Loyola of Los Angeles School of Law, and his scholarly publishing partner, Professor Lawrence Solan, Don Forchelli professor of law and director of graduate education at the Brooklyn School of Law, must also be acknowledged for the inspiration they have both (albeit unknowingly) provided to me and to an entire generation of researchers in forensic linguistics, not only in the U.S. but around the world. To the anonymous scholarly reviewers who were recruited on my behalf by Routledge/Taylor & Francis, I also owe a debt of thanks for their insightful comments on my initial project proposal and draft chapters. I would be remiss if I also did not acknowledge my former professors and mentors in Carnegie Mellon Universitys doctoral program in rhetoric during my formative years as a writer and researcher, especially Professors Linda Flower, David Kaufer, and John R. Hayes, whose insistent focus on the interdisciplinary foundations of rhetorical theory and discourse analysis is one that I hope I have brought meaningfully to bear in the present work. I am grateful as well to the University of Colorado Denver for the Dissemination Grant Award that made the indexing of this work possible. Finally, I would like to thank Margo Irvin and Kathleen Laurentiev at Routledge/Taylor & Francis first, for believing in this book and my initial proposal concerning it, and second, for their professional assistance in further guiding my editing of the manuscript.