The technological developments impacting the legal profession are consistent with the trends sweeping through several professions where many offerings and services are becoming available ‘online’.
In particular, there is an increasing demand for clerical, administrative and standard services provided by professionals to be automated and available on mass via the web at a reduced rate.
Contracts online?
The constant advancements of technology are making available day-to-day legal contracts online, through portals providing legal contracts at a lower price than if prepared by an attorney ordinarily.
However, there will always remain a need for specialised drafting services to be provided by attorneys in a traditional way.
Challenge of drafting agreements
Having properly drafted and compliant agreements is a challenge facing small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups, due largely to the high cost of attorney fees in drafting such agreements and documentation.
Rise of online legal platforms
The rise of online legal platforms is increasingly providing a partial solution to this challenge.
These platforms can provide a company with legal documentation. Some are also becoming more interactive, enabling inclusion of specific situations and requirements in the drafting process.
Is the platform reputable?
However, when choosing an online legal platform, the user must ensure that the site for purchasing the agreements is reputable, and that suitably qualified and experienced lawyers have drafted the content.
It is also obviously important that the agreements be kept up to date to cater for changes to the law occurring from time to time. An attorney may only be able to provide this service in a traditional way.
Does it comply with regulatory and statutory provisions?
Compliance with regulatory and statutory provisions is also essential.
A good example is suretyships within credit applications. These suretyships should always include clauses making provision for business rescue and must be compliant with and anticipate the requirements of the National Credit Act.
Another example is shareholder agreements where it is essential that the content is updated in terms of the new Companies Act and that a memorandum of incorporation is prepared together with the shareholders’ agreement.
Integration with other platforms
Certain of these platforms can integrate with other databases and service providers.
An example would be the integration with credit bureaus and platforms, such as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), whereby the correct information regarding an individual or company can be automatically populated from these founding databases, thus negating the risk of typos and incorrect information.
Bruce Henderson | Managing Director | Litigator – a Group Company of Metrofile Holdings Limited | http://www.epicmslgroup.com/ | bruce@litigator.co.za |
