Lawyers need to know more about language

The Biennial Conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists (IAFL) was held at RMIT, Melbourne from the 1^st-5^th of July this year. The conference brought together a broad range of researchers from across the globe, interested in a variety of language-related issues in diverse legal contexts. However, despite this diversity, a clear issue emerged amongst the many presentations: the importance of tackling problematic beliefs about language in a format that is accessible and perceived as legitimate by those working in legal settings.