Getting a solicitor to create SLA (Service Level Agreement)

[mleader1]

hi, help please:

I recently formed a company and just made a deal for a software development project. I actually don't know how the legal procedure should be going now... I do know I need to provide a SLA (service level agreement) contract to the client, and probably many more...

Do I need to hire a long-term solicitor for every single contract I do with my client? (I definitely cannot afford that yet....)

Can anyone help me out please? or if there's any solicitor online, could you please contact with me?

Thank you very much! You can also contact with me via lida.weng AT webcider.com

Kind Regards,

Lida Weng

 

[scottdsmith]

Hi Lida,

In the past for my own web businesses I've used www.lawdit.co.uk - I'm not affiliated in any way btw. They have a very good grasp of net business and worth checking out IMO.

Hope this helps.

Scott

 

[The Legal Mango Team]

Hi,

If the majority of the majority of work you do is of a similar nature, it sounds like it'd be worth you getting a solicitor to draft a template contract for services for you so that you can 'fill in the blanks' for each client - this will ensure that the terms of the deal are properly documented and will give certainty to both parties.

Another option would be to get a solicitor to draw up a set of standard terms and conditions for you (the small print you usually find on the back of invoices etc). This would be cheaper than a template contract for services, but will not necessarily provide the flexibility and / or same level of detail as the template contract.

As to which is more appropriate will depend on the value and complexity of the services you are providing - best to talk through the options with a solicitor.

Hope this helps.

We're not a firm of solicitors and the above is intended as general guidance only.

 

[mleader1]

hi scottdsmith and "Legal Mango Team",

thank you very much for the info! Now I got a clear direction, will try to come up with a contract first and then contact with solicitors which may be better for price (otherwise I think they may charge a lot...)

thx again!

 

[Astaroth]

Many will have a stock document that they will then tweak to your specifications... sometimes its quicker to "start from scratch" -v- amending an existing document.

You may also want to consider how you will deal with a client that wants to amend the terms/ SLAs - are you going to agree yourself? are you going to refuse? are you going to seek council each time?

Other consideration is things like scope of the project - can be worth cross referencing to a second document such as SoW or ToR rather than trying to paste the scope etc into a contract and therefore making change control even more painful

 

[The Legal Mango Team]

Hi,

We're with Asatroth - it'll usually be quick, easier & therefore cheaper for solicitors to produce a document based on their precedent, rather than using another organisation's precedent as the starting point.

We'd recommed that you get quotes from solicitors for both options - we imagine that you'll get a fixed price quote if you get them to do the whole lot, and an estimate if you ask them to amend a document that you provide, because the fee for the latter will be based on how long it takes them to make the amendments. Definitely worth checking though.