What is a Legal Services Agreement?
A legal services agreement is a contract between an attorney and a party who hires the lawyer for legal services. This contract is similar to a standard service agreement. The only exception is it’s tailored specifically to a lawyer and their client.
A legal service contract is important to create a record of the attorney-client relationship and protect both parties. This contract should cover all the services that will be required to adequately represent a client. It should also include:
- The name and contact information both the parties
- Services that will be provided
- Duration of the business relationship
- Total fees and payment schedule
Why A Legal Services Agreement is Important?
- Legally binding and acceptable by the court: The main reason for e-signatures to hold importance in law firms is that they are legally binding and hold the same value and importance as physical signatures. There are multiple levels of verification that need to be cleared for a person to be eligible for e-signatures and that is what makes it authentic and hence, acceptable by the court. If an E-signature is made within all the guidelines and laws that are laid for attesting its authenticity, it is legally binding and accepted in all forms of jurisdiction for almost all kinds of agreements. As convenient as work with E-signatures is, their legal acceptance makes them all the more favorable.
- Save time and increase overall productivity: Digital documentation facilitates the transfer of all the manual data to digital platforms. This in turn saves a lot of time for the lawyers who otherwise have to go through multiple files and documents on a daily basis and have to invest a lot of time into looking for their desired document from the collection of thousands of such documents. When all these documents are securely available on one software, it becomes easier to surf through them to find your desired document. This saves a lot of time. Transferring or sharing files is also done just through a click. Approval of documents that are needed by the lawyers from their clients or counterparts is also made easier through E-signatures. All these facilities increase the productivity and efficiency of the lawyers to a great extent and the reduced workload also provides work satisfaction to them and increases their efficiency.
- Ensure safety and reduce risks : When all the documents and the data that they store, are available only on a single software and that software has only exclusive or limited access through user identity authentication only, the security and safety of data increase tenfold times. With such high-level security, it becomes almost impossible for infiltrators to enter the system and hamper the data stored. The risk of data loss or data mismanagement is also reduced because everything is stored and saved on the web. It becomes easy for the lawyers to create new files, delete old ones, get access to previous records and get approvals on various documents and the overall efficiency of the law firm also increases.
- Convenient and cost-efficient: As already said that the entry of e-signatures has reduced the workload of the lawyers in law firms to a large extent. These are not only convenient for the lawyers but also for the clients and make the whole flow of work much simpler than it was before the use of E-signatures. In case a lawyer is working with the client, he or she need not be necessarily physically present for every meeting or for signing or approval of every document. The lawyer can simply share the soft copy of the document to the client from his workplace and the client can e-sign the document from his workplace and the work is done. This also saves a lot of time and money for both parties. The cost of the law firm, in specific, is reduced to a large extent because of the elimination of the cost involved in the purchase of pen, paper, files, stationery, printers, storage place, etc. Therefore, e-signatures are not only convenient but also extremely cost-efficient.
Frequently Asked Questions About Legal Services Contract Templates
Why is it necessary to make an Attorney Agreement?
Even if you are providing legal counsel as a favor, having a record of any agreements with those hiring you is important. Using a Legal Services Agreement most likely will be helpful to your business due to this list of benefits:
- There are no surprises about how long the engagement lasts
- Neither party is confused about the payment schedule
- Both parties know what they are responsible for
In the end, if you opt not to make a Legal Services Contract, you might not enjoy any of the aforementioned protections.