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Ambiguous prepositional phrase in a legal document

English Language & Usage Asked by ambiwords on December 13, 2020

In common speech or writing, disambiguation of objects of prepositional phrases can be inferred from context. However, there is no room for error in filling out legal documents! I came across this question: "Have you enrolled or will soon enroll in health insurance but your health coverage has not started yet?" The answer choices are: "Yes, I am enrolled", "I will soon enroll" and "No". I am currently enrolled in health insurance and it has already begun, but I have no idea how to answer this question (or whether I should skip it).

There is an ambiguity in the interpretation of this question. Logically, given propositions A, B, and C, the question " “A or B and C?” can be taken to mean either " A or (B and C) ? " or " ( A or B ) and C ? ", which are not equivalent questions.

Is there a correct interpretation?

One Answer

The question on the form is worded as "Have you enrolled or will soon enroll in health insurance but your health coverage has not started yet?"

This is worded clumsily, for sure. But I think the intention is: "(Have you enrolled or will soon enroll in health insurance) AND your health coverage has not started yet?"

The reason being that if the government department wanted to know if you had health insurance, and then as a follow up question, if your health insurance had started yet or not, this would (should!) have been two seperate questions. That fact that it is written as a single question suggests the emphasis is on whether it has (not) started.

Since the OP has health insurance and it HAS started, I would be inclined to answer "no".

(This is not legal advice and I appreciate you have already sought independent legal advice. But given the nature of the wording, if you answer this question as truthfully and correctly as you can, if it turns out that they actually meant something else, I think you have a safety net - the blame lays squarely with them).

Answered by Earlien on December 13, 2020

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