Why have a lawyer draft your legal documents?
Standard Legal Documents
Some legal transactions are fairly commonplace and can be dealt with in a standardised way.
What that generally means is that the standard legal document will contain almost every possible clause that may ever apply to that type of transaction, and it is then for each of the parties to figure out which may actually apply in the circumstance.
The only advantage of using a standard legal document, in our view, is cost!
The cost saving to the client, is because they have been pre-drafted to apply to 80% of circumstances, they can be mass-applied to each client with a few tweaks, and information within a schedule.
There are certainly circumstances where standard documents are useful, and applicable, but there are disadvantages also.
Disadvantages
Because of the need to cover all bases, Standard Legal Documents tend be lengthy, with lots of text and jargon to read through.
Just because the legal document contains a certain clause, does not necessarily mean it applies to the legal transaction you have. That is because Standard Legal Documents try and cover every circumstance, but yours may not be covered.
Because of the length, and often complexity of a Standard Legal Document, the parties don't tend to bother reading it, and therefor don't fully understand it, and how it affects them.
It is often the case that clients misunderstand or misinterpret provision of a Standard Legal Document, to their detriment or disadvantage.
When one party produces a Standard Legal Document, it is often heavily (and sometimes unreasonably) swayed to favour them, which can ultimately terminate the transaction altogether, or eventually bring the parties into a later costly dispute.
What Standard Documents do we provide
We have developed a number of online Standard Legal Documents within areas of the law we consider might warrant them. Either because of the standard nature of them, or because their is a genuine client desire to obtain such.
We try and ensure our Standard Legal Documents are well balanced between each of the parties that would be contemplating entering into the transaction.
Our Standard Legal Documents are drafted to be understandable, as concise as possible, and drafted in a way so as to avoid (and manage) any later disputes and disagreements.
Fixed Legal Fees
All our Standard Legal Documents are offered at a Fixed Fee that is clearly stated before you need to engage with us.
Transparency in legal fees is key, especially when it comes to drafting standardised legal documents.
If we have not yet developed on online Standard Legal Document yet, reach out and enquire and we can provide a fixed fee offer to produce your document.
Bespoke Legal Documents
In a sense, all legal documents are bespoke in one way or another.
However, truly bespoke legal documents involve your lawyer getting to know you, the other party, the transaction, the underlying intention, and the future expectations of the legal transaction.
When that is done, the legal document (or series of documents) that you need can be drafted specifically to accommodate what the parties understand is going to happen, each step of the way.
Whilst it will clearly cost more in legal fees, it ought to be thought of as a commercial investment in the proper, orderly, and systematic process of the legal transaction you are trying to achieve.
In our view, most legal transactions would benefit form this 'bespoke' approach.
Advantages
A lawyer will draft you legal document specifically for you!
Your legal documents should be easy to understand, but if you need it, a lawyer is on hand to assist when you are not accustomed to legal matters.
A bespoke legal document should only contain the clauses and terms needed to cover the legal transaction you and the other party are seeking to enter into and all of the circumstances and nuances that are contemplated by it.
Indeed, if a bespoke legal document contains a 'special condition' then it clearly has not been drafted to be bespoke to your needs from start to finish.
The purpose of bespoke legal document is to ensure both parties understand the document, can work with it into the future, and know how it must be interpreted.
Because the obligations and risks to each party are fully understood later disputes and disagreements are less likely to occur.
What Bespoke Legal Documents can we provide
We handle almost anything business or commercial related.
The more the unique, special, exclusive, or uncommon the legal transactions, the better!
Most common for 'bespoke', we see joint venture agreements between multiple parties seeking to bring together their individual strengths and knowledge for a mutual commercial and financial gain.
Equally, more common legal transactions (for instance: commercial leases, shareholders agreements, service agreements, distribution agreements, and supply contracts) are often dealt with on bespoke terms because a special characteristic or circumstance involved.
What's the Cost?
There is no simple answer to the question, every circumstances is different. However, to provide some insight, our standard hourly charge is $440.00 (Inc GST) per hour for the Principal Lawyers time engaged.
As a guide, an average bespoke joint venture agreement between multiple parties might take somewhere between 8-12 hours (over the course of a couple of weeks) to complete.
DISCLAIMER: The content on this page was written at a specific point in time in the past and is provided as general guidance only. It is not intended to be specific legal advice to any person’s particular circumstances who may be reading it. We do not recommend you use this article as a replacement for obtaining proper legal advice on your issue and encourage anyone reading this content to obtain legal advice to ensure the above information and guidance remains valid and suits your particular circumstance. In our experience, there is no ‘one size fits all’ to any legal issue!
