According to a Centre of Economics and Business Research (CEBR) report, failure to take care of their legal issues costs UK SMEs more than £13.6 billion per year. There is an overarching reluctance of UK businesses to invest in legal protection, which ends up costing them dearly.
Most UK SMEs do take out some insurance policies against risks of various nature even though on average they make only one insurance claim per year. Comparatively the YouGov survey reports that on average, SMEs with less than 10 employees face three commercial legal issues a year that come with serious adverse penalties. If only the British organisations handled their legal issues with the same seriousness that they show when taking out insurance policies, they could protect themselves against significant penalties.
Another curious fact that comes from the same YouGov survey helps us understand the reluctance in British attitudes to securing legal services. About 82% of the respondents said that the legal documentation is too complex and not easy to understand while 89% said that the legal fees are too high for the value they provide.
The YouGov survey and the corresponding CEBR report make it clear that traditional law firms no longer meet the needs of British SMEs. Even creating relatively simpler contracts such as employment agreements and NDAs can be incredibly effort-demanding and time-consuming, not to mention surprisingly expensive.
Therefore, it is no surprise that people are looking elsewhere, which has opened up a huge gap in the market that companies like Legislate are filling up. Legislate provides a cost-effective way for non-lawyers to create legal documents and agreements which are robust and written in an easy-to-understand language.
Founded by Charles Brecque and based in Oxford, Legislate uses its patented knowledge graph to make the process of creating contracts and aggregating data easy and straightforward. They offer lawyer-approved contract templates that are based on fairness and provide robust protection for all parties involved. On top of that, Legislate has the option to configure the terms of the contracts to add any specific clauses one wants.
Technology companies operating in the legal industry demonstrate the potential to diminish the reluctance that British SMEs show toward addressing their legal matters. Legislate does not only offer a simpler alternative to sourcing contract templates from traditional law firms but it does so while helping SMEs save time and money.
