It is expected that whenever people have a contract or any business relationship with a body or organization, they ought to have one form of agreement or the other in order not to be cheated along the line. This is why it is needful to draw up a contract document that is legally binding on all parties.
Although there are loads of contracts that you cannot draw up without the involvement of a lawyer, but there are others you can draw up without the involvement of a lawyer. These include contract agreements between a tenant and a landlord, a contract between an organizer of an event and a performing artist, a contract between a supplier and a buyer, a contract between a maid and a boss, contract between an employee and an employer of labor and the list goes on.
Be that as it may, there are situations where you may not have the required money to hire a lawyer that will help you draw up a legal document or you may have the money but you may not be able to easily access a lawyer that can help you draw up the said document. This is why you need to know how to make a contract legally binding without the involvement of a lawyer.
If you have been wondering how you can achieve this especially if you don’t have the money to hire a lawyer, then you might just find this article very useful, you will be able to identify means of making a contract legally binding without the involvement of a lawyer.
Here some of the things that you need to do to make a contract binding without the involvement of a lawyer;
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Involve a Guarantor or Guarantors
You would have noticed that most employers of labor usually get their employees to fill a form that captures their employment contract and also require that they get one or more guarantors to append their signature on it. In the United States of America and in most countries of the world, this contract is legally binding on all parties and anyone who breaches the contract agreement can be sued to court. In order to maximize this method, you must ensure that you carefully draft the contract document to avoid loopholes and beyond getting the signatures of guarantors, you must ensure that you have their house and office addresses, including their passport photographs. With that, it will be difficult for them to claim that their signature was forged. This method is also used for legally binding contract agreements between students and school authorities.
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Involve a Witness
Similar to involving a guarantor in a contract agreement is getting a witness to append their signatures on the contract agreement. For example, if you want to rent or lease a property to a tenant, and you don’t want to hire a lawyer to draw up a legally binding document, you can get a third party to witness the contract agreement between both parties. The truth is that if someone with a track record of obeying the law stands as a witness of such contract agreement, the contract agreement is legally binding on both parties and any of the parties can sue when things go wrong or go against the terms and conditions of the contract. This method is also highly suitable for a contract agreement between the owner of a taxi and the driver of the taxi (uber driver).
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Apply the Terms and Conditions Caveat Document
You would have noticed that most businesses that run promos or sell products or services usually make use of ‘terms and conditions’ to be able to enter into a business contract that is legally binding between them and their customers without the involvement of a lawyer. The truth is that it is not possible for a business that services several thousands and even millions of people to get them to a round-table in the presence of a lawyer to sign a contract agreement.
For example, when a flight company runs a promo that requires them to give out 30 percent discount to people that purchase flight tickets between a certain period; the fact that someone purchased his or her flight ticket within the said period does not automatically qualify the person to get the 30 percent discount, and the person does not have a right to sue the company because of the terms and conditions caveat. The aviation company has every right to give reasons why you did not qualify for the promo despite purchasing your ticket within the said period. Reasons could be that they have exceeded the number of free tickets or they are only giving the discount to their new customers etc.
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Get the Contract Document Notarized (Get a Notary Public Figure to Witness and Sign the Contract Document
First, who is a Notary Public Figure? A Notary Public Figure is a public official with good tract record who is appointed by a state government to help deter fraud in the state. Basically, Notary Public figures witness the signing of important documents and verify the identity of the signer/signers, and their willingness to sign the contents of the contract document. So, if you are looking towards making a contract document legally binding on all parties involved without the involvement of a lawyer, then you can get the document notarized by getting a public figure to witness and sign the contract document.
The truth is that when the seal of a notary public figure is appended on a document, the contract document automatically becomes legally binding on all parties involved. This method of legalizing contract document between two parties is accepted not just in the United States of America, but all across the globe maybe with the exception of very few countries. It is common to find embassies of different countries leveraging on this method to enter into contract agreements that are legally binding between them and visa applicants or anyone that has dealings with them. Schools also make use of this method especially for their international students.
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Spell Out the Penalties Involved
There are people who will always fail to keep their own side of the bargain no matter how binding a contract may seem. One of the ways this can be prevented is when there are strict penalties involved. Let the parties who are meant to sign the contract know the penalties that will come with nonpayment. This way, everyone would know what they are up against in case of default.
There you have it, ways through which you can make a contract legally binding. It is also very imperative that whoever needs to sign a contract should take time to study the contract so that there wouldn’t be a default that can be detrimental.