A Birmingham tech entrepreneur has launched a new service which he is hoping will address the issue of expensive contract legal fees for start-up and growing businesses.
Called GitLaw, the platform says it wants to help small companies access legal advice by providing hundreds of legal document templates free to download or customise through its platform.
Users can also submit templates as well as suggest changes to existing documents.
Most of the documents on GitLaw have been created and contributed to by law firms, solicitors, investors and other organisations.
One of its founders is Birmingham-based Nick Holzherr who launched recipe building website Whisk which he famously pitched to Alan Sugar on BBC show The Apprentice and
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Mr Holzherr said that, each year, 32 per cent of small businesses experienced a legal issue but only a quarter were able to access professional help.
Of those which did engage lawyers, many had to draw on personal savings just to meet fees, he said, calling the current legal system "unaffordable with the balance tipped against those without vast financial resources".
Mr Holzherr said the idea's vision was to create a collaborative, open-source community for legal documents, with the service initially targeted at small businesses in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and US.
"As a startup founder, I have first-hand experience of having to navigate legal battles without budgets for lawyers and I wish I'd had something like this," he said.
"We already have 300 documents that cover key contract types like non-disclosure agreements, employment agreements and privacy policies and we hope the community will continue to provide more documents.
"In the medium term, I hope we'll be able to cover a lot more areas of law like civil.
"Longer term, I can envision GitLaw being used to support the creation of national laws, enabling citizens to contribute, provide feedback and transparently track every change made to their legislation."
GitLaw's name is inspired by Git technology and open-source software development.
