Legal Document Drafting

What is Legal Document Drafting?

If you’ve ever signed a lease or purchased a car before, you’ve probably signed a contract. Have you ever wondered where all that legal talk that you’re supposed to read comes from? We have the answer for you: legal document drafting.

Legal document drafting is a task that involves writing documents to be used for legal purposes. While there are document templates that can make the process of creating them simpler, each legal document has unique qualities that make it custom-tailored to the situation it is meant to address. The drafting stage of a document involves crafting the clauses, provisions, terms and conditions, and more.

In the next sections, you will learn about the common types of legal documents, how to draft them, and what rules you need to follow while you do it.

Common Types of Legal Documents

There is a legal document out there for almost any agreement that you can think of. Think about every agreement that you have ever put your signature on. That was a legal document!

A legal document can fall under one of three categories: an instrument, a pleading, or a general legal document.

Examples of legal instruments include:

• Last will and testaments
• Mortgages
• Deeds
• Car notes
• Contracts
• Written agreements

Examples of legal pleadings include:

• Legal complaints (for use in the courtroom)
• Legal answers (for use in the courtroom)

Examples of general legal documents include:

• Police reports
• Photographs
• Letters

Check out this webpage to learn more about the different types of legal documents.

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How to Draft Legal Documents

The good news about legal document drafting is that it is very rarely done from scratch. Most of the time, contract lawyers use contract templates and other assistive tools to help them in their legal drafting . These templates are often publicly accessible, but sometimes are owned by the lawyer’s firm.

Legal document drafting is as easy as having the information you need to fill in the blank spaces on a legal template in most cases. Here is a simple four step process that you can use to draft legal documents:

Step One: Plan Your Document

The first step to tackling any big job is to have a game plan, and drafting legal documents is no exception. Before you can draft the document, you must plan it out. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Know your audience : A legal document drafted for a business partner versus one drafted for an employee is going to be different. Write using language that your audience will understand.
• State the purpose : Each document you draft has a specific purpose. Be sure that purpose is clearly stated somewhere in the document.
• Gather the details : Before you can draft your document, you need all the pertinent information in front of you. Gather all these details, such as information, facts, statements, and evidence for your document ahead of time.
• Have a timeline : The best way you can ensure you are successful is to create a timeline for yourself. Have a plan for when you will complete each section to hold yourself accountable and make sure you are not rushed to complete the document before your deadline. Keep in mind that you may need to revise and edit the document before the final product is done, so allow time for that.
• Consider hiring a lawyer : When it comes to drafting legal documents, there isn’t much room for error. Working with a professional contracts lawyer ensures that your legal document is sound.

Step Two: Make it Easy to Read

It’s already hard enough for many people to get through the legal aspects of a legal document. The last thing you want to do is make it even more difficult by throwing too much legal jargon around.

Another thing you can do to make your document easy to read is to mind the formatting. If there are certain sections that you know are more important, you can bold their titles or highlight certain areas to draw attention to them.

This makes it easier for the signing party to get the information they need out of the contract without wasting too much time reading the technical aspects of it.

Step Three: Keep it Concise

Since legal documents need to be so well-thought-out and accurate, it can be tempting to include unnecessary information to err on the side of caution. Unfortunately, adding too many footnotes or placing the same information multiple times throughout the document can be distracting.

Remember to keep your language as concise as possible. Most legal documents are long enough – they don’t need any extra help being time-consuming to read.

Step Four: Complete a Contract Review

Once you complete your legal document, do a contract review . Make note of any spelling or grammatical errors and if you find an area where you didn’t include something important, go back and change it. It’s always a good idea to have a few different opinions at this step, so don’t be afraid to ask others to review your work and give their notes on it, as well.

Quick Tips

While you are drafting legal documents, here are a few things you can keep in mind to help the process go more smoothly:

1. Pay attention to your language . Sentences should be as clear and concise as possible and should be written in plain English.
2. Watch your grammar usage . A legal document riddled with poor grammar not only looks unprofessional, but it could also be unusable in court.
3. Accuracy is key. It is vital that you make sure the information in your legal document is as accurate as possible. You must go the extra mile and research when needed.

Basic Rules of Legal Document Drafting

Legal document drafting is a structured process that must follow certain rules. Since these documents must stand up in court, it’s vital to follow a few basic rules when it comes to the drafting of legal documents:

1. Write in active voice
2. Use letter-sized paper (8.5x11) – sometimes legal-sized paper depending on the document
3. Use a traditional font
4. Use 1-1.5-inch margins to make text easy to read
5. Legal documents must contain captions, headings, signature lines, space for notary, space for attorneys to sign

Learn more the rules of legal document drafting by checking out this article .

Legal Document Drafting Fees

The below legal document drafting fee data comes from ContractsCounsel’s marketplace. The table includes 12 popular legal document drafting projects.

All data is flat-fee (not hourly), so the pricing you see below is the total to complete a project. Please note, pricing for drafting can vary based on document type, number of custom terms, and number of revisions needed. The above pricing table includes averages.

Who Provides Legal Document Drafting Services?

If you need legal document drafting services but you’re not sure where to start, we have good news for you: contract lawyers can help. Whether you need assistance setting up a contract template or you want to hire someone who knows how to write a business contract, they are perfect for the job. It’s always a good idea to get the help of a professional, especially when it comes to highly technical documents like legal agreements.

Post a project on ContractsCounsel today to connect with contract lawyers who specialize in drafting legal documents today.

ContractsCounsel is not a law firm, and this post should not be considered and does not contain legal advice. To ensure the information and advice in this post are correct, sufficient, and appropriate for your situation, please consult a licensed attorney. Also, using or accessing ContractsCounsel's site does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and ContractsCounsel.