A study investigated the readability of current laws for Canadian francophones and anglophones. The 63 subjects were asked to read a variety of brief legal texts available in parallel styles in both languages and to answer questions about the texts' content. Subjects were also surveyed about their preference for a formal or vulgarized style of legal writing and their feelings about legal language, and demographic information. The results suggest that (1) legal texts are comprehensible to citizens of at least a tenth-grade education; (2) most people are mystified by the legal world to the point of doubting their own capacity to read and understand legal texts; and (3) preventive legal education is essential for all citizens, both to facilitate socio-legal action and to improve access to legal information. Vulgarization of legal texts is not recommended as the optimal solution to improving this access. (MSE)