5 Tools You Need in Your Legal Toolkit in 2022

You started your first business. Congratulations! You’ve certainly thought about many possible roadblocks. And you’ve probably thought about different ways of handling them. But have you thought about the possible legal problems?

Unfortunately, that is something not a lot of small businesses are ready for.

But they should be. Did you know that nearly 60% of small businesses in America – which amounts to 13 million organizations – have experienced significant legal troubles over the past two years? If you’ve just started, chances are, you’ll experience some too.

What can you do? Well, you need to prepare yourself. That’s what.

How can you prepare your business for legal problems?

Potential Legal Problems Your Business Can Face

Before you can start working on your legal toolkit, you need to do your homework. It’s important to know what legal problems your business might face. And the best way to do that is by knowing which ones are most common.

Here are some of them you should look out for:

1. Trademark Infringement

If someone has used or registered your trademark without permission, this infringement may harm your ability to grow your brand. This may also decrease consumer trust in your organization and increase costs through lost sales, possibly even having to shut down operations unless the infringing party is stopped.

2. Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement may happen if someone used your copyrights without permission. Despite being common, this can be really harmful to your business as well, especially if you are a creative company that relies on copyright protection to secure future revenue streams.

3. Trade Secret Theft

This is just as bad as copyright infringement because it prevents you from using proprietary information for future potential earnings or competitive advantage over other businesses in the same industry. This would make your organization lose its edge, thus harming your bottom line.

4. Personal Injury Claims Related to Company Operations

Your employees might bring personal injury claims related to their work for business operations, such as construction accidents due to faulty equipment or defective building materials. You may also face these types of legal problems if your company is found liable for damage to the property or personal injuries caused by one of your products.

5. Contract Disputes

These are often the most overlooked legal problems, yet they can be costly if not dealt with properly. Contract disputes may occur if you did not have all of your requirements or did not have a clear contract, to begin with. Or it could happen because of loopholes that were only discovered after the contract was signed.

5 Tools For Your Legal Toolkit

Those were some of the basic problems. Some can be costly and others may leave your company completely crippled when not handled correctly.

Do you know that a simply fine from the federal government can cost you up to $25,000? A lawsuit, on the other hand, can leave you in debt for the rest of your life. You can't afford something like that.

It’s important to arm yourself with the right tools in order to prevent any potential legal failures in your business. So what exactly should be included in your toolkit?

1. Contract Management Software

Contract management software gives you the chance to create, customize or build contracts that suit your company best. You can then use them as templates so you don’t have to copy and paste everything from scratch each time a contract needs signing - saving you a lot of money over time. ContractWorks is a user-friendly tool, that can be set up in a matter of minutes and can help you manage all of your contracts from a single dashboard.

2. Cloud-Based Legal Forms

If you need to access and complete legal forms using your smartphone, laptop, or tablet, a cloud is all you need. You just have to pick the right service that allows remote access and editing of contracts and other forms stored in the cloud. This way, you can save money on printing costs. Plus, it’s easier to handle changes in real-time than with regular paper forms.

3. Document Sharing Service

A document-sharing service provider makes it easy for individuals within an organization to communicate with others through a centralized system where they can conveniently share official documents or company records with other members. It also allows them to access these files even if they are not in the office.

4. Legal Information Service Provider

Another helpful tool is a legal information service provider that gives you the latest updates about the law, legislation, case law changes, or other legal issues affecting your business by providing you with digestible articles written for non-legal professionals. That reduces time spent researching complicated legal concepts and enables small businesses to be informed of important cases that may affect their operations. While it may take some time to find the best legal service provider, it will be worth it.

5. Document Comparison Software

Document comparison software is quite useful in identifying changes made to contracts and agreements with customers, suppliers, and partners. It can even help you identify the original agreement that was signed by all parties. A tool like Draftable can help you compare contracts, agreements, and other legal documents with real-time editing features that allow multiple people to collaborate on a document at the same time. The tool automatically highlights any differences between the two files. That means you won't have to worry about missing anything.

In Conclusion

You can’t be proactive with your business if you don’t understand or know about changes in the legal environment. For this reason, it is necessary to equip yourself and your organization with specialist tools that will help you deal with legal matters more effectively. Being informed of these laws and regulations at all times will enable small businesses to plan ahead and avoid legal problems as much as possible.