Got a Question? We’ve got an answer.
Explore our FAQs to find answers to common questions about our practical and powerful contract management solutions.
What is Combined Intelligence?
Combined Intelligence = artificial + human intelligence. We believe that an algorithm plus a person is stronger than either by itself, so we have designed all of our products based upon a "human-in-the-loop" principle. We do not trust the robots to get it right all the time; they make mistakes. (So do the humans, by the way.) We purposefully build our products to incorporate people, accepting that even with the cutting-edge AI used by our products, we will not be able to eliminate humans from the work that we focus on in our business. Thus, we named this concept Combined Intelligence.
Do your products include free updates?
Yes. All of our subscriptions include free updates for our clients. Because our software is delivered as a service in the cloud, clients receive these updates automatically. We release updates weekly. Clients and partners can expect new and improved Sifters, new and improved playbooks in LegalSifter Review, and ongoing software enhancements for LegalSifter Review and LegalSifter Organize in our weekly releases.
Do you offer unlimited free training for your products?
Do you offer unlimited free technical support for your products?
Yes. LegalSifter offers unlimited free technical support from Client Support five (5) days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, Eastern Time, not including the following USA holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Clients and partners may reach us via chat on www.legalsifter.com, chat within LegalSifter Review, email at help@legalsifter.com, or phone at +1 724-221-7438 (SIFT). LegalSifter offers emergency support on weekends and off-hours. Clients and partners may access at any time self-paced videos and documentation available in our Online Help Center.
How do you handle enhancement requests?
Clients and partners may submit enhancement requests through help@legalsifter.com or directly to their assigned Growth team member. Clients and partners may also request new Sifters specifically with our Sifter Ideas form.
Who are LegalSifter's Combined Intelligence Partners?
LegalSifter partners with six types of organizations through our Combined Intelligence Partner Program: 1) Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software providers. 2) Non-CLM software providers. 3) Law Firms and Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs). 4) Consulting firms. 5) Insurance companies. 6) Other organizations that do not neatly fit into one of the 5 categories above (e.g., bar associations, etc.). In general, we are open to referral, reseller, and other commercial variations of partner relationships. We have built our products to complement and make money for our partners. Click here for a complete list of our partners. https://www.legalsifter.com/partners
Who is the ideal LegalSifter Review user?
LegalSifter Review was built for anyone who has to review and negotiate contracts, and has a "do-it-yourself" mindset. If you are the kind of person who reviews agreements and is willing to dig into the details and has the time, LegalSifter Review is a great fit for you.
If you either do not have the time, or you are the kind of person who only wants to know, "can I sign it or not," and are not interested in the details, you can let us do it for you using LegalSifter Review confgured to your specific positions, needs, and guidelines.
What situations are best to use LegalSifter Review?
LegalSifter Review has 6 classic use cases. The most frequently cited use case is when a user must negotiate on the counterparty paper. People find it hard to review another party's paper, particularly when trying to understand risky omissions. LegalSifter Review is invaluable when reading an agreement you have never seen.
1. Review counterparty's paper. At times, you have to create a new contract. Double-checking your draft before it goes to the counterparty with LegalSifter Review ensures you do not leave out provisions that protect you.
2. Double-check your first draft. If you send out your agreement, and the counterparty marks it up, LegalSifter Review will help you quickly understand what changed.
3. Review your draft, marked up by the counterparty. Double-checking your teammate's draft before it goes to the counterparty or a client is another good use of LegalSifter Review.
4. Double-check your teammate's draft. Buyers who must negotiate on supplier's papers may use LegalSifter Review to conduct the first round of negotiation with the fifth classic use case. The supplier will sift their own paper in a buyer-branded version of LegalSifter Review, filled with negotiating points that the buyer normally shares with the supplier openly. The supplier, who is highly motivated to get the deal done, will do the first redline, saving everyone lots of time and money as they modify their paper for what the buyer expects. The buyer only has to give the supplier a username and password to LegalSifter Review.
5. Buyer has LegalSifter Review do the first round of negotiation on supplier paper. When buyers make suppliers negotiate on buyer paper, suppliers often make lots of redlines because (a) they do not agree and (b) they do not understand. Buyers who are used to getting their own paper will save themselves a lot of time by allowing suppliers to sift the buyer paper inside LegalSifter Review. Our product, filled with buyer points of view that the buyer would share normally, will allow the supplier to make redlines with more context concerning the buyer's intent. The extra context helps the supplier make fewer or more acceptable redlines, saving everyone time and money.
6. For buyers that force suppliers to use their paper, suppliers sift and edit buyer paper in LegalSifter Review.
What contract types does LegalSifter Review read?
LegalSifter Review is appropriate for most English-language, business-as-usual agreements, defined as what any procurement function spends up to 80% of its time negotiating.
Business Associate
Confidentiality / Non-Disclosure
Consulting
Data Processing
General Terms & Conditions / Boilerplate
Goods
Hotel
Information Security
Leases
Privacy & GDPR
Service
Shipping: Truckload Transportation & Brokerage
Software and IT
Sponsored Research
Will LegalSifter Review make me faster?
Yes, typically. "Up to 80% faster" is the most accurate statement. Context matters. We tend to define speed in terms of how fast a single person will review an agreement with and without LegalSifter Review.
If you are negotiating an agreement over about which you have a lot of competency, you should see tremendous improvements in speed as learn to you work seamlessly with our Sifters over subject matter that you understand.
If you are negotiating an agreement over which you have limited competency, you will not enjoy the fastest gains of all of our users, as you will spend more time familiarizing yourself with the concepts and advice from LegalSifter Review. That said, if LegalSifter Review allows you to review a contract that you would otherwise have to pass on to other people, the aggregate time savings vs. what you would have had to spend with multiple people may outpace all of our users.
If you would rather not review contracts at all, do not like technology, and do not have a lot of contract competency, you could opt for the Contract Control Program and have our team do it for you.
May I share sifted documents in LegalSifter Review with teammates or 3rd parties?
Yes. All LegalSifter Review editions allow teammates to review, redline, and comment on the same sifted agreement with our simple sharing feature. Professional edition clients may also setup LegalSifter Review to accommodate collaboration and negotiation with a counterparty.
What does the onboarding process for LegalSifter Review look like?
LegalSifter Review Essentials clients: Onboarding only requires setting up a username and password plus a 30-minute user training that we encourage all users to attend. LegalSifter Review is preconfigured with out-of-the-box advice, Sifter Settings, and Playbooks, so but for a few administrative settings and some training, onboarding is simple.
Contract Control Program clients: LegalSifter Review is usable immediately once username and passwords are assigned. A 30-minute user training is recommended to configure specific playbook changes or new ones (it also comes with out-of-the-box Playbooks). When configuring Playbooks, clients should expect to spend the following amount of time:
4-16 hours of work to create your first Playbook with one of our attorneys.
1-4 hours of work for each Playbook after the first one.
1-4 hours of refresh work each month or each quarter to keep your Playbooks fresh.
1-2 hours of administrator training for your Admins.
30 minutes of training for each user.
Some clients knock out this work in days. Some take longer.
Does LegalSifter Review have a clause library?
Yes. LegalSifter includes recommended or sample clauses with each of its Sifters in its out-of-the-box advice and in the Sifter Library.
Who writes the out-of-the-box guidance in LegalSifter Review?
LegalSifter Review includes out-of-the-box guidance for all clients. Attorneys with relevant experience within the Playbook type write our out-of-the-box guidance. For example, see the following:
Business Associate Agreement guidance was written by Dan Mulholland from Horty Springer, one of the top law health law firms in the United States.
Our software contract guidance was built with support from David Tollen, a LegalSifter advisor and author of The Tech Contracts Handbook.
Our truckload transportation and brokerage guidance was built by Transaction Expeditors, a subsidiary of Frost Brown Todd, one of the top law firms for truckload transportation in the United States.
Ken Adams, our Chief Content Officer and the author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, manages the guidance within LegalSifter Review. He is the leading authority on the building blocks of contract language and has conducted hundreds of Drafting Clearer Contracts training sessions around the world, online, and in-person.
Is guidance different for buyer vs. supplier, landlord vs. tenant, etc.?
Yes, if appropriate. Some concepts require different guidance based upon your position in the negotiation - buyer vs. supplier, landlord vs. tenant, etc. When the guidance diverges, the guidance included in LegalSifter Review out of the box varies, as do the Sifter Settings (i.e., the controls over Sifter behavior). Buyers should expect different contract negotiation guidance than suppliers. When the guidance does not diverge, the guidance is the same regardless of your position.
May I configure LegalSifter Review with our organization's guidance?
Yes. Depending on your subscription level, you may configure the guidance, Sifters, and Sifter Settings for your organization. Configuration is a no-code process accomplished with anyone who is competent with both contract provisions and your organization's negotiation strategies.
Does LegalSifter Review work with Word or GoogleDocs?
Yes. The last step in using LegalSifter Review takes the user to Word, Google Docs, or any other word processing application. With LegalSifter API, LegalSifter Review may also integrate into your application or workflow seamlessly.
Does LegalSifter Review have reporting?
Yes. LegalSifter Review has a variety of reports including:
1) Sifter Settings (Playbook) Report: Admins may download an organization's playbook at any time.
2) Document Abstract: Any user may download an abstract of any sifted document at any time.
3) All Sifts Report: Admins may download a report of all Sifts across the organization in the All Sifts Report.
4) Sifter Trainer Report: Users and admins may download a report of all individual or organizational Sifter Trainers.
Does LegalSifter Review integrate with my CLM or software through an API?
Yes. Through LegalSifter API you may integrate LegalSifter Review in your application or workflow.
Is LegalSifter Review offered in other languages?
Yes. LegalSifter Review, the application itself and not our Sifters, is currently available in the following languages:
Standard Chinese (Mandarin)
English
Croatian
Spanish
Clients are using these languages when they have to negotiate English contracts with team members for whom English is a second language. Clients turn on the native language (e.g., Croatian) in LegalSifter Review and offer advice in their native language and in English. Note that our Sifters only read English at this time.
Does LegalSifter Review work for contracts outside of the United States?
Yes. We have clients around the world using LegalSifter Review on English contracts. Because the advice is configurable in LegalSifter Review, multinational organizations change the advice by jurisdiction - e.g., EU users may receive different advice than South Africa or China on limitation of liability or payment terms.
We have trained our Sifters on a cross-section of global English language contracts, so they will do a good job of recognizing novel language in different English dialects.
What is the Truckload Transportation Package for LegalSifter Review?
Built by transportation experts at Transaction Expeditors, subsidiary of full-service law firm, Frost Brown Todd, LLC, the Truckload Transportation package includes Playbooks from both parties' perspectives for Broker-Shipper Agreements, Broker-Carrier Agreements, and Shipper-Carrier Agreements.
Can LegalSifter benchmark contract clauses, i.e. compare the clause language of a contract with the industry standard language?
Yes, LegalSifter Review is configured with best-practice guidance for many business-as-usual contracts. We have engaged subject matter experts and attorneys to provide out-of-the-box guidance and language built for your specific role in the negotiation (e.g., landlord vs. tenant, buyer vs. seller, etc.). LegalSifter Organize is consistently used by our clients to understand what they have signed historically. Clients use that information for multiple reasons, one of which is to benchmark their own performance against industry-standard language or their internal negotiation playbooks.
