FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1. What is Contract Watchdog?
Contract Watchdog is an informational tool which businesses can use to assess whether contract terms are good or bad, and then select options for revising the bad ones. It does this at the user's specific direction (since only the user knows all of the relevant facts). Here's a brief overview of some key features:
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It shows the favorability of each sentence with a stoplight type approach - dark red (very bad for you), light red (bad), yellow (neutral), light green (good) and dark green (very good for you).
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Miscellaneous sentences which aren't really good or bad are either light gray (the shorter way of writing that sentence) or black (the longer way of writing it).
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You can move the slider bar on the left side of the sentence to automatically change the sentence's favorability.
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The "i" on the right side of each sentence explains the purpose of that sentence in the contract, without all the legalese.
Q2. What is Contract Watchdog's beta testing? What contracts can Contract Watchdog assess/revise during the testing?
We are currently alpha testing Contract Watchdog on purchase contracts / terms & conditions (T&C) for goods or services. We are also beta testing Contract Watchdog on one-way non-disclosure agreements (also known as confidentiality agreements or confidential disclosure agreements). We're doing this because we want to get your feedback while still working out some kinks (hey, nobody's perfect).
We're not charging any money during this test period. We mostly want to get your input - so please send us a comment in the "Send us your suggestions/feedback" link at the bottom of the screen! By signing up, you're also agreeing to our terms and conditions.
We'll let you know once the platform is ready for full use and when it expands to other types of contracts.
Q3. Is Contract Watchdog a law firm? Does it provide legal services?
No, it is not a law firm and it does not provide legal services. It is not a substitute for seeking legal advice from a lawyer. Using Contract Watchdog (or this website) doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. We recommend you use Contract Watchdog in conjunction with your attorney. If you don't have your own attorney, state and local bar organizations are oftentimes great ways to find legal services, though we don't recommend any particular one.
For example, a lawyer licensed in a particular state can advise you on what you should do in your specific situation based on all the facts. Similarly, a lawyer could tell you whether a specific term is good or bad in your specific circumstances.
In contrast, Contract Watchdog is an informational tool that gives a user a general idea of what the contract says. However, the user ultimately has to decide whether the information provided is correct - Contract Watchdog doesn't know about the user's specific situation. Also, the law changes all the time. The laws also vary by United States state and sometimes even by court or judge; Contract Watchdog only assesses contracts for the United States in a general way (and not any other country). For all of these reasons, we can't guarantee that all of the information that Contract Watchdog provides is or will be current, correct and accurate.
Q4. What is a demo account?
You can use a demonstration account to quickly see how Contract Watchdog's review and revision functionality work. Rather than entering your company-specific information and uploading a contract, these are pre-loaded for you. You'll only need to enter basic information to use a demo account, in particular to protect our system from internet bots. Your functionality will be limited unless you create a full account.
Q5. How do I use Contract Watchdog? Walk me through the steps.
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You begin by creating an account. Some of your company's information (such as the address) may be used in your contract, so it's important to be accurate. You only need to do this step once.
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You then select the tab labeled "Analyze/Revise a Contract."
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You'll move through a few simple screens that assess your prior usage of Contract Watchdog for the relevant contract.
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Next, you'll provide your contract to Contract Watchdog and add some information particular to it.
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After that, you'll click the "Run Analysis" button and wait about two minutes (a status bar at the top of the screen will flash once the analysis is done).
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Then click the "View Document" button to see your contract.
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The "Show Favorability" button shows you which terms may be good or bad, from dark red (very bad) to dark green (very good).
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By moving the colored slider bar to the left of each sentence, you can see options to automatically improve it.
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The "i" on the right side of each sentence gives you a hint as to the purpose of that sentence in the contract.
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You can click on the "Commercial Terms" tab just above your analyzed contract to see some key commercial terms from your contract.
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You can click on the "Wildcard" tab towards the top of your analyzed contract screen to see and change specific pieces of information for your contract (such as the name of a party or the term of the agreement).
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Once you're satisfied with your contract, you can click the "Finalize/Sign a Contract" tab to export your revised contract.
Our website has a one-minute video showing how this process works.
Contract Watchdog has more advanced capabilities too, such as the ability to search your contracts for certain types of terms (i.e., compliance with law, or tariff pass-throughs). We'll cover those separately.
Q6. How do I pay for Contract Watchdog's services?
Right now, you don't pay any money. At this time, we're focused on getting feedback for our alpha version of the platform for use with sales / purchase contracts (and T&C) for goods and services, and our beta version of the platform for use with non-disclosure agreements. Once our testing is complete, customers will use credit cards to pay either a small amount per use or a larger amount for a subscription to the platform. We'll use a third-party credit card processor for the payment, so we won't store your credit card information.
Q7. I think a contract term is good. Contract Watchdog thinks it's bad. What gives?
This could be for a couple of reasons.
First, Contract Watchdog separates sentences with favorability into two buckets:
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Bucket #1: it looks for certain types of unusual terms and flags them - the fact that they're in the contract at all is inherently bad for one party, regardless of how they're written. For example, a non-compete in a business-to-business confidentiality agreement is usually out of place.
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Bucket #2: it assesses the rest on a sentence-by-sentence basis. If a contract term falls into that second category, then the platform will assess whether the way it's written is good or bad for you in general. This means that a term which is generally good for you might be written in a comparatively bad way.
An example of Bucket #2 is that a sentence might protect confidential information from disclosure. That is common in a confidentiality agreement and is always good for the disclosing party. However, the way in which it is written might be comparatively better or worse for the disclosing party. This is why you might think a term is fine, but when compared to 100 other variations of that term, your version is really only so-so. Don't take it personally.
Additionally, Contract Watchdog doesn't know about your specific circumstances. It's possible that a term which Contract Watchdog indicates is comparatively bad could be good in your specific circumstances.
Finally, we're beta testing Contract Watchdog and working out some kinks. We're still collecting more data (contract examples) - that's why you don't pay cash for it during the testing. But with the addition of new anonymized contracts, the artificial intelligence model gets more and more accurate - we're building it together, so we can benefit together.
Q8. Does the attorney-client privilege apply to my contracts? Or other lawyer-specific characteristics?
No. LAINA Pro d/b/a Contract Watchdog is not a lawyer or a law firm, and it does not offer, sell or provide legal services. As such, neither the attorney-client privilege nor the attorney work product protection applies. However, we treat the company-specific information in your files as confidential.
Similarly, we won't keep your funds in an Interest on Lawyers Trust Account. Once we start charging for Contract Watchdog, we will accept your company's credit card payment like any other service provider. Credit card information will be kept by a third-party service provider, not Contract Watchdog.
Also, you can usually sue a lawyer for malpractice - after all, lawyers are professionals who charge the big bucks. Under our terms and since we don't provide legal services, you agree that our aggregate liability is capped at the lesser of the amount that you spent to receive the relevant service or $100. The key is that Contract Watchdog is just an informational tool and you're in control, not the software.
Q9. I'm a consumer, not a business. Can I use Contract Watchdog?
No, sorry - Contract Watchdog is only intended for businesses.
Q10. I live in the European Union (so outside of the United States). Can I use Contract Watchdog?
No, sorry, not in Europe. Contract Watchdog is intended for businesses in the United States. It is not available to persons in the European Union or the European Economic Area.
Q11. Does the platform use my contract for any purpose, other than providing the services?
No, we only use your contract to provide services to you. By providing your contract, you are granting Contract Watchdog a non-exclusive license to perform its analysis and other services using our platform. But your contract does not become part of our database of sentences to train our AI. See Q17 for our extensive security measures.
Q12. Do I still have to read my contract after Contract Watchdog has analyzed it?
Yes, you do - this is no different than having an attorney review your agreement or assessing it yourself without Contract Watchdog. You're in control of Contract Watchdog, which after all is just an informational tool. Also, you still need to know what your obligations are. Contract Watchdog does have an icon to the right of each sentence to assist you in understanding the purpose of each sentence generally.
Q13. Can I ask an attorney or someone else substantive questions about my contract?
First off, of course you can always consult your own attorney about your contract terms - and we recommend you do so. If you don't have your own attorney, state and local bar organizations are oftentimes great ways to find legal services. We don't recommend any specific organization, though.
Second, we plan to set up a network of attorneys who will be available to answer a few of your contract questions for a specified period of time at no additional cost (after you run it through Contract Watchdog). We're still working on this, but stay tuned.
FOR ATTORNEYS: If you're interested in becoming part of this network (which could have significant benefits for you too), please reach out to us at support@lainapro.com.
Q14. What types of files can Contract Watchdog analyze?
For now, Contract Watchdog can only analyze .docx files, not .pdf or .doc. But don't worry, there are lots of free ways to convert one of these other file types to .docx. We don't recommend you use any particular conversion tool. As one example, a user can open Word, then click "File", then "Open" and select the file. Word will convert the file and you can save it as a .docx file (assuming that file type is supported by your version of Word).
Note that converting .pdf files to .docx sometimes results in errors in the new file. This can impact Contract Watchdog's ability to analyze the contract.
Q15. How can I provide feedback to Contract Watchdog on its software?
First off, thanks! You can email us at support@lainapro.com or click on the "Send us your suggestions/feedback" link at the bottom of our website. We welcome all feedback, good, bad or other.
Q16. Can Contract Watchdog analyze a mutual non-disclosure agreement?
Not yet, but there's a partial workaround. Right now we're focused on one-way NDAs, as well as purchase contracts / T&Cs. If your company has a mutual NDA, you can run it through the software and view it from the perspective of whether your company or the other party will be primarily disclosing key information. If it's your company, then you would identify your company as the "disclosing party."
Q17. What IT security measures does Contract Watchdog use?
At Contract Watchdog, we are committed to maintaining the security of your vital information. HTTPS access to our platform is required. Access to your account is protected through your password and multi-factor authentication, which are managed by the Microsoft Azure solution and not accessible to Contract Watchdog. Additional information regarding our IT security measures is available.
Let us know what other questions you may have by sending an email to support@lainapro.com.