Continental Europe News
Captain Contrat, an innovative start-up company, is utilising HotDocs Cloud Services to provide small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in France with affordable access to business-critical legal documentation and services.
Launched in April, www.captaincontrat.com was founded by brothers Maxime and Phillippe Wagner and Pierre Gielen and is aimed at assisting entrepreneurs and small to medium sized businesses by providing them with a range of legal documents online, at low costs and within a short timescale. Built using HotDocs automated document generation technology, Captain Contrat takes advantage of a range of HotDocs products to bring its services to life.
Bryan Bailey, who has responsibility for EMEA strategic partnerships for HotDocs, said: “It is exciting to partner with ambitious entrepreneurs and their investors as they launch new and sometimes disruptive services to the market. Captain Contrat has applied HotDocs’ cloud technology to deliver the high quality legal services of its member firms to customers at a fraction of the cost incurred using traditional routes. This is a key illustration of HotDocs’ cloud strategy making powerful document automation capability accessible to small and even start-up enterprises, with cost savings being passed on to their own customers.”
Captain Contrat deployed HotDocs Developer to transform commonly used French legal documents, including articles of incorporation, non-disclosure agreements and conditions of employment, into intelligent templates. These are made available online to Captain Contrat partner law firms, which will be delivering legal services to SMEs. End users within the SMEs will complete a dynamic HotDocs interview to produce a first draft of their selected document, which will then be routed to their chosen partner law firm for review.
Maxime Wagner, co-founder of Captain Contrat, commented: “Thanks to HotDocs, we were able to automate our first legal documents rapidly and launch in our products in a few months. In addition, the subscription payment model for HotDocs’ cloud products fit perfectly with our own business model, offering document automation services on a per user per month, or per assembly basis.”
In contrast to other online legal services suppliers, Captain Contrat has eschewed the self-service only model and has put lawyers at the heart of the service that it offers, all the while keeping the cost much lower than if using traditional routes to accessing necessary legal documentation. The premise is simple; businesses go the site and select the documents that they require, initiating a HotDocs interview for each that they will complete to provide a fully customised legal document. They also select a Captain Contrat registered lawyer who will review and finalise the document on their behalf.. With this optimised process, Captain Contrat can, for example, deliver articles of incorporation in 72 hours for €390, rather than the average of €1,500 and an extended timeframe when going through a traditional law firm.
Phillippe Wagner, co-founder of Captain Contrat, explained: “With almost no budget, many new entrepreneurs and small businesses use websites that draw up legal contracts, instead of going to lawyers. This is not only prohibited in France, but is dangerous for end users because they have no guarantees. With Captain Contrat and its partner lawyers, legal security is now accessible and affordable for small businesses."
Gary Eunson, Commercial Director at HotDocs, concluded: “This is another great example of HotDocs technology as a catalyst for innovation. Built around the HotDocs Cloud Services platform, Captain Contrat is providing a previously unavailable service to the entrepreneurs and small businesses of France. Partnering with HotDocs helps forward-thinking companies to thrive and I am confident that Captain Contrat will be a case in point.”
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