Creating, inspecting, and even signing legal documents come with obstacles, whether that’s the cost of a lawyer, navigating ambiguous wording, or simply getting somebody’s signature. Today, we’ll look at three main ways online services and technology at large are making sure that legal forms remain convenient and accessible.
Online Document Templates
Even just a few decades ago, the only way to obtain a high-quality legal document was to hire a lawyer, which could cost £500 or more. This – and the limited availability of legal aid – prevented thousands from arranging wills, powers of attorney, and other documents.
Today, sites such as LawDistrict UK offer people the chance to download and customise a range of legal documents for free. Pre-made templates, even if you opt for a custom version, also give you something to compare your tailor-made contracts against, ensuring they are legally binding.
Why Customise Your Legal Documents?
Customisation is key to ensuring your documents match your situation. Here are just a few extra clauses or sections you can add:
- Severability clause (maintains a document’s integrity if one part of it is unenforceable)
- Non-disclosure clause (prohibits the other party from disclosing sensitive information)
- Force majeure (suspends obligations in the event of certain extreme circumstances)
- IP ownership (explains who owns any work created under the contract)
- Subletting conditions (outline if you may sublet a property and the rules for doing so)
- Break clause (sets criteria for ending a contract early without penalty for either party)
These won’t always be on a pre-made template; you might have to add them yourself. Luckily, customisable legal template files make this as easy as adding a new paragraph. Depending on the service, you might simply have to answer a few questions about your situation.
Custom legal documents save you both time and money while still standing up to scrutiny. If you need extra peace of mind, you could still contact a lawyer to confirm that the document is legally binding and fits your needs.
Contract Summarisation
You should always read a contract in full at least twice before signing it – this helps you spot any unfair or otherwise sneaky clauses. For example, a supplier contract might fail to specify proper timelines, leaving you powerless to address late deliveries.
However, there are still some situations where you need help summarising or quickly identifying the main points of a document, such as if it uses complex jargon. The rise of AI has prompted a lot of questions about how it can help the legal sector, and summarisers are one key example.
How Legal Summarisers Work
These tools scan your document (while protecting its data) and summarise it within seconds, no matter its length. This saves you time and helps you understand it better – many such tools even flag up ambiguous syntax. You can then make the document clearer or, if you aren’t the contract writer, bring it to the other party’s attention.
Not every time you look at a contract requires you to scan the full document from start to finish – perhaps you just want to double-check a lease’s rates, for example. A summariser categorises a contract’s relevant clauses and displays them in an easier-to-follow way.
Who Uses Legal Summarisers?
As early as 2024, Clio reported that 96% of law firms were using AI in some capacity. If you’re a lawyer who drafts contracts for clients, you may already use tools like these to simplify forms or explain them more clearly. Adopting them into your workflow could save you a lot of time, which would otherwise be spent explaining complicated clauses.
Alternatively, you might simply need a legal document yourself. These tools work with pre-made or custom legal templates; some even confirm if it’s legally binding.
Electronic Signatures and Signing Platforms
Physical signatures aren’t always easy to obtain. The other party might be many miles away, for example – and there’s always the risk that the signed contract will get lost in the post. Even if all goes to plan, simply getting a completed contract signed could take days.
For years, there were questions around whether electronic signatures would hold up in court. In the UK, the Electronic Communications Act 2000 confirmed that these signatures had the same legal standing as “wet” ones.
E-Signature Types
In the 2010s, “eIDAS” rules shared with (then retained from) the EU set out a clearer framework and defined three types of e-signatures:
- Simple: A typed name or even a scanned image of a wet signature
- Advanced: Secure and linked to the document via Public Key Infrastructure
- Qualified: Includes a certificate proving the e-signature’s validity
Signing Platforms
Though e-signatures have been a fact of life in the legal world for years now, many people don’t trust them or simply prefer a physical equivalent. However, some legal sites now offer electronic signing platforms.
These tools let you upload a completed – but unsigned – document. It’s then held on the platform for you and the other party to sign. Once both parties have signed, it should be available to save to your device, but it can also remain on the platform for future reference.
Any platform you trust to store your contracts, however, should have industry-standard TLS and SSL encryption.
Final Thoughts
Every aspect of drafting and validating contracts has been improved by technological platforms that promise full peace of mind about your documents. Understanding these solutions could be the key to a smoother legal experience, no matter the type of contract you need.
