1. Reported speech is important for legal language as it is used in newspaper reports of crimes, investigations, and trial reports. 2. There are generally two rules for reported speech: there is no change in tense or adverbs if the introductory verb is in the present, present perfect or future tense; if the introductory verb is in the past tense, there is a change of tense and adverbs of time and place. 3. Changes include past tense for present, past perfect for present perfect or past, past future for future, and changes to adverbs like "yesterday" becoming "the day before".