Introduction
Drafting a contract may be quite tasking as it requires a great deal of attention to detail. All seven elements must be present: an offer, acceptance, mutual consent, consideration, power, and legality. Putting all these in writing, on the other hand, can be difficult, particularly if you have other administrative responsibilities to grapple with at the company.
To solve this problem, you need to follow an agile framework that lets you envision the whole process and deploy the best legal document review software. Getting the basic requirements right maybe just what you need to get this done rightly.
Understanding the Requirements
There are more than a hundred reasons to write a contract; business agreement, family issues, employee contract, you name it. In the same vein, each type of agreement has its peculiar formatting style. Therefore, before getting started, you must understand its requirements alongside the recommended style.
Your client, for example, might want the contract terms to reflect a business agreement. You’d be wrong to generalize, nonetheless. Best practices require that you meet up with the client to understand what options are peculiar to their business agreement. This way, you are sure to create a tailored-fit contract for them. Otherwise, you are in for a back-and-forth contract review session.
Research the Subject of the Contract
Every writing process begins with adequate research. It is the ideal moment where the lawyer digests every detail related to the contract he is about to write. Writing a contract could take hours or minutes- however, you can be assured that researching will take up a significant amount of time. How can lawyers speed up this process? Well, it’s all about working smart and not necessarily working hard. Ignore the shelf and cabinets and engage intelligent tools in your research process.
Today, there are just about enough tools that can help lawyers carry out research. Programs like Fastcase are furnished with a large repository of legal documents that you can quickly draw inspiration. Another tool to use is the ROSS Intelligence, which takes dictation of your query, and the AI-backed software will turn in a list of related cases in which you can draw reference.
Consequently, you can cross-reference the background of the contract you are about to write against a similar case treated in the past. More so, you know which aspects to ignore or refine. Using these contract review tools saves you more time by cutting down on the number of potential revisions.
Create an Outline of Key Ideas
A good moment of research would naturally leave a lawyer with a myriad of ideas and inspiration such that they are eager to start crafting a badass contract. Doing that without creating a specified order will slow down the writing process. So, you might want to take a breather if you aim to do it right.
A clearly defined outline can help you put your thoughts in order. In essence, as you experience an idea rush, you know exactly where each one fits in. A great outline is the skeletal configuration of a professionally crafted contract. Ignoring it can leave your final copy unorderly and eventually requiring more time for restructuring.
Draw Inspirations from Relevant Templates
Writing a professional contract can often be a test for your creative depth. It is okay to feel stuck. When you do, draw inspiration from relevant templates online to get the flow going.
There are probably a thousand models online, but the perfect match for the job can only be found by searching the right place.
For quality assurance, use Business-in-a-Box to find relevant templates certified by hundreds of thousands of users across 190 countries. It is a repository for hundreds of professional legal templates you can cite for inspiration. Such a template will help you visualize how the contract you aim to prepare should look like. Meanwhile, a clear visualization generates a faster thought process.
Write the Body of the Contract
Now that you have drawn enough motivation from these templates, you’ve also carried out accurate research, and lastly, created an outline of the structure of the contract, you can start constructing the body of the contract. Typical of every other writing, the body is the most important part of the content.
Write the body of the contract with clear and comprehensible expressions. While many “hithertho” and “wherefore” may identify a professionally written contract, this legalese can be confusing for either party. Write short sentences if you must and choose the appropriate word register. Doing that from the onset would save you time you would otherwise spend revising a contract.
While you are at it, describe what value would be exchanged because that is essentially the reason for putting out an agreement. If a service is to be rendered, state clearly who the selling party is; how it must be done and for how long.
Finally, include applicable legal codes in the contract terms; without them, the contract is just a bunch of words on a sheet of paper. To ensure that it is legally binding and tenable in a court of law, it must include provincial or federal legislation. Fastcase gives you access to a domain of legal codes specific to the province or state where the contract terms are implemented.
Good Time Management is Required
Being a lawyer saddles one with many responsibilities, especially when your law firm is desired by many. Notwithstanding, writing a contract and offering virtual consultation alongside, will inevitably prolong the completion time and may jeopardize the qualitative value of each task. As a result, one of the keys to completing contracts quickly is to write with utmost concentration.
Time management tools can make all the difference between writing a concise or loose contract. Are you ready to make the most of your time? Take a look at ActiveCollab. It is pretty easy to use a time planner that organizes all your activity across a colorful interface and sets the time for each one accordingly. Thus, you can write your contracts quicker and more efficiently with optimal concentration.
Proofread and Edit the Contract
When you position yourself as a professional lawyer, it’s only imperative that your work speaks for you, especially when writing a document as sensitive as a contract. Nothing is as embarrassing as when the elegance of your tuxedo is a complete contrast to your writing prowess.
Agreed! No one is perfect. Nevertheless, the least expected of you as a legal practitioner is to have your contracts riddled with errors. Save yourself from potential red-face moments and employ the service of the best editing and proofreading tools to cross-check your contract document for errors.
While taming a contract review, you require a second pair of eyes; that’s Grammarly. It is revered as one of the best editing and proofreading software out there.
Conclusion
It can be difficult to write a contract. Asides from the pressures of organizing tons of confidential information and agreements, you may even find yourself stuck in a tight deadline. However, the task becomes easier when you combine legal writing tools with an elaborate process like this. Looking to make your next contract easier, be sure to explore the tips in this article.
