Contract Insights

Are you aware that the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was enacted by the European Union to help protect consumer information?  Yes, the GDPR is a good step forward in safeguarding the data of individuals.  In the United States, there have been comparable attempts by both the federal government and states to protect data of consumers including (but not limited to) healthcare privacy data protection (such as HIPAA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and various similar state-enacted consumer protection laws (to name a few). 

The federal and state governments are indeed taking noteworthy steps in the interest of protecting consumer data.  However, California has notably stepped up the game with the California Consumer Privacy Act.  The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA for short) creates new consumer rights related to the access, management, and deletion of personal data that is collected by a business. 

Today’s procurement, legal, and sales professionals are very busy onboarding new vendors and customers, reviewing contracts, quoting deals, and qualifying leads and suppliers.  Those efforts combined with the task of data entry, learning new software management systems, checking e-mails, and other duties leaves little time to accomplish quality work.  By implementing simple and easy-to-use software tools, you can allow your staff to become more productive and allot their time to more intelligent work. 

What’s the Deal With Robocalls?

Telemarketing calls – we all get them.  We’ve all received unwanted phone calls with someone selling a product or service.  Have you wondered how they got your name and phone number?  What legislation or regulations are in place to prevent these unwanted calls?  According the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FTC “takes aggressive legal action to make sure telemarketers abide by the Do Not Call Registry” (in accordance to a post by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)). 

To date, the FTC claims they filed 134 enforcement actions against companies for violation of telemarketing regulations and recovered over $50 million in penalties.   

This post was originally shared in the Paralegals Connect January 2019 Newsletter

Contract review is a daunting task for paralegals.  In most cases, having an extra set of eyes to review contract terms is critical to ensure no "bad" clauses slip through the cracks.  The duty of reviewing agreement terms and clauses is a time-staking task, making the effort and focus it takes to review contracts priceless to an organization.  Moreover, paralegals bear a great amount of work to complete the contract negotiation and signing process quickly — all while preventing unwanted or risk associated clauses from being overlooked in the contract’s final review.  Having a smart assistant handle contract data extraction, data entry, and contract tracking can be a lifesaver to the busy paralegal and, in many cases, can provide assurance that your organization’s contracts will be mistake proof.