Does a lawyer have to draft a contract? This one was painful…..
Does a lawyer have to draft a contract? This was interesting for me, this one. Anyway, let’s work that one out.
Hi everyone, Simon here from The Contract Company. Contracts is what we do, all day every day.
Does a lawyer have to draft a contract?
I’d love to sit here and say yes but I’d be lying to you. They don’t.
A lawyer does not have to draft a contract. I would like to think that you’ll get a better result if you do have a lawyer draft your contract. But I’ve seen some contracts drafted by the lawyers, and let me tell you. You may have been better off doing it yourself.
Anyway, I’m being a bit flippant, but the more complex and convoluted the transaction is, then I would say you’re better off if the contract is drafted by a lawyer.
But does it have to be? No it doesn’t have to be.
I’m gonna give you some secret sauce. I’ll give away some secret sauce of mine here.
If you want to do it yourself, you can go and find some reputable online precedents. So if you can find a good quality template document to start with on the internet, then you’re gonna be way ahead of the pack.
There is a website out there that I’ve used in the past before I started my firm, They’re a law firm based in Australia, and I know you can buy precedents from them. I’ve seen one of their precedents recently from someone else who would.
Contract Review
Someone else who’d bought it and filled it out and I was acting for this bloke who was actually wanting it reviewed and it actually wasn’t a bad document.
So that is one place you can go and find something that works. Then you just want to make sure that you’re careful with how you fill it out. Now what does that mean?
Well I’m sorry I have to be vague there. but just try and be very clear with what you’re saying. If you write a clause into that document that can be interpreted in two or three ways, just think about that.
Then maybe just add some additional wording to say things like, you know, to avoid doubt or just to be clear, X means Y or whatever it is.
Just to abundantly make the point about whatever you’re trying to convey. So, just try to be as clear as you can.
So does a lawyer have to draft a contract? No. I like it when they do. It’s good for us. But they don’t have to.
And in fact, for some low-risk transactions, you know you can definitely do it yourself. This is as long as, and this is the key provisor, as long as you can find a good template to use, then you should be..well, you’ll be a long way ahead of the pack anyway.
So that’s my view on whether you have to draft a contract or have to have a lawyer draft a contract for you.
Hope that helps, if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch 1-800-355-455 or simon@contractcompany.com.au Thanks very much.
