Dispute Settlement Counsel

Posts Tagged ‘Legal Contracts’

Today, many people try to save time and money by using templates and programs available on line or in bookstores to draft their own legal documents. There are some good products out there and some language is pretty much boilerplate.

But not all of it. The devil is in the details, it’s often said. The problem with using already prepared contracts and agreements is that no two situations are alike. Templates designed for general use could not possibly know the specific circumstances of your situation and the specific purposes for your agreement or contract.

The word processing of a contract is a very small part of the service provided and the value added of a lawyer’s work. The larger parts are knowing the client well, caring about the little things in the client’s circumstances, and advising the client on the best ways of dealing with these unique situations: The nature of relationship between our clients and those they do business with, the specific details of his organization or her business, the information and idiosyncrasies that are unique to this situation and the particular relationship that the agreement addresses. The vital purpose fulfilled by having your lawyer draft, fine tune and negotiate the contract is to consider all these specific details and make sure they are addressed.

A lawyer who counsels on and drafts agreements is a conflict resolution advocate. The lawyer is called upon to anticipate situations that may arise in the future of the relationship between the parties, and efficiently address those situations in advance in the contract. A boilerplate agreement downloaded from some general program or software can’t possibly fulfill this function. This is where the real advocacy and representation lives; where an attorney proves his or her real worth to the client. We need to provide good answers in the contract to this question: What if this happens?    Read the rest of this entry »