Preparing legal documents is likely second nature if you work in the legal field. But what if you’re unfamiliar with the steps required to complete legal documents? Here is a closer look at how to prepare legal documents. You’ll also learn why it could be wise to leave these vital tasks to a process server.
The Main Steps Required for Preparing Legal Documents
Preparing legal documents might seem daunting. In many situations, successfully getting legal documents ready involves completing several critical steps.
1. Choosing the Right Document Types
A surprising number of situations require completing legal documents. Marriages, divorces, estate planning, insurance-related matters, and forming a business almost always require someone to complete legal paperwork.
Some examples of life-related situations requiring legal documents include:
● Divorce: Separation agreements, divorce petitions, custody arrangements
● Estate Planning: Wills, trusts, power of attorney (POA) documents
● Real Estate: Loan agreements, property deeds, rental agreements
Typically, legal matters require more than completing a single document. You can typically find what documents you need by visiting your state’s official website, as the documents required can vary by state.
2. Gathering Necessary Information
After you have all your vital legal documents, you may not be finished with gathering papers. In most cases, you’ll need to gather supporting paperwork. Some examples of supporting documents might include witness statements, invoices, bills, timesheets, and more. You may need to present your original documents. In other cases, copies of original documents are acceptable.
Certain supporting documents aren’t requirements for completing a claim or similar legal matter. In other cases, these types of supplementary evidence aren’t required but can help strengthen a claim.
3. Drafting Your Documents
Sometimes, resolving legal matters is more complex than filling out forms. For instance, you could be a business owner who must have an employment agreement for your first hire. You may also be issuing someone a loan and want to ensure everything’s above board.
This step is advisable to complete with help from a process server or similar legal professional. It’s easy for someone inexperienced with the legal world to make mistakes while drafting legal documents on their own.
4. Reviewing Your Completed Legal Documentation
Legal paperwork is never something you want to rush. While acting timely is important, you’ll always want time to go over your documents, forms, and other paperwork before submitting them.
This step might sound like going overboard. However, the amount of mistakes you may catch during this review process could surprise you. Making errors can also delay your legal situation, forcing you to resubmit corrected documents.
During this time, having a legal professional look over your legal documents is a wise choice. These individuals can catch mistakes you might not know you’ve made.
5. Submitting All Required Legal Forms Promptly
You’re off to a great start at this point. However, it’s also crucial to submit your prepared legal documents within a certain timeframe. The exact amount of time you have to submit or file your legal paperwork depends on a few factors, notably where you live and what your documents are for.
For instance, your vicinity may allow you up to two years to submit legal documents for a personal injury claim. However, this same location may only give you up to a year to file divorce-related paperwork.
Unfortunately, in most cases, missing your window of time can nullify your claim. Generally, it’s a good practice to submit any legal-related paperwork as soon as possible.
Why Hire a Process Server for Legal Document Preparation?
You’re not alone if the previously mentioned steps seem like too much to handle. One of the most common ways people get help with legal document preparation is by contacting a process server. Hiring a process server to help prepare legal documents offers several benefits.
Compliance
Compliance is a vital concern when preparing or filing legal documents. As you can imagine, legal matters depend on all parties involved staying compliant with local, state, and federal guidelines.
However, it’s often confusing for someone unfamiliar with legal matters to understand if they’re being compliant or non-compliant when preparing legal documents.
A process server stays up-to-date regarding local and federal laws. This quality assures that process servers prepare your documents and handle other legal matters without skirting or breaking any laws.
Saving Time
Taking the DIY route with legal document preparation will take considerable time. Understandably, most busy adults don’t have the time or energy required to prepare complex legal paperwork.
Thankfully, a court paper server can handle the ins and outs of preparing legal documents. Because of that, process servers can carry out the preparation of legal paperwork quickly. Additionally, a process server is also capable of speedily delivering legal documents to any appropriate parties.
Avoiding Mistakes
Considering the importance of legal matters, these aren’t areas where you want mistakes happening. Fortunately, you shouldn’t have that problem when a process server prepares your legal documents. Because of that, you have the peace of mind that comes with professional and error-free paperwork.
Timely Filings
As mentioned earlier, filing your documents before statutes of limitations pass is as crucial as properly filling out your paperwork. You’ll be glad to know that process servers specialize in preparing and completing legal documents quickly.
Process servers can also let you know when documents are ready or provide receipts after serving documents to another party.
Assistance With Similar Legal Matters
More often than not, you’ll encounter more than one legal matter that needs resolving. When you hire a process server, you can potentially have help with a wealth of legal situations.
A process server can typically assist with skip tracing. Skip tracing means tracking someone down to serve them with legal documents, especially those who could be hiding or are otherwise hard to find.
Knowing how to prepare legal paperwork can mean the difference between resolved and unresolved legal proceedings. However, some people can understandably find legal document preparation time-consuming and confusing. If you’re inexperienced with this type of paperwork, asking for assistance from a process server could be helpful.
