Arbiter Deep Dive

DocJuris Arbiter lets you securely share contracts with external parties(e.g. Counterparties, outside counsel, any non-DocJuris user) for collaboration, all while keeping documents within the DocJuris platform. Arbiter enables you to control contract access, set deadlines, and collaborate more smoothly with external participants.

Preparing to Send a Draft Through Arbiter

Initial Draft and Team Collaboration

While working on your initial draft in the Contract Editor, you can set up your contract for collaboration with both an internal team and external parties.

To open a contract for collaborating, you can create a new contract from the Templates page in the Dashboard, or use Analyze a Contract to open a draft.

As you collaborate, be sure to leverage the use of both Comments & Mentions to smoothly negotiate with users both internal and external to DocJuris during a review. 

Locking Down Sections

The provision locking feature in DocJuris allows you to control which sections of a contract will be available for markup when sharing.

You can use this feature in the Contract Editor to restrict specific Sections/paragraphs on a Turn to Comment only. As a result, other external users will not be able to add markups to locked Sections/paragraphs.

To Lock Down Individual/Multiple Sections of a Contract: 

1. Hover the mouse cursor over the desired Section(s) and click the Checkbox on the left.
2. In the Section Menu above the Editor, click the Actions: Select Action dropdown menu and select Lock Sections. To lock sections individually, you can also hover over any section, and select the lock icon on the right hand side of the section. 
3. The Section will turn Gray to indicate its locked status.

Setting Areas

You can set Areas to use as reference when collaborating on a contract. Areas also help team members in other departments easily navigate to a specific portion of the contract. When a greater degree of specificity is needed for discussion or for more granular control of provisions, especially during collaborations, Areas are another great feature to use within the DocJuris platform.

How to Set Areas: 

1. Open the Contract.
2. Click the Browse tab on the left.
3. In the Areas section, click the + button to add an Area.
4. Set the Start Area and End Area in the Contract Editor to the right.
5. Name the Area.
6. Click the View button to jump to that Area of the Contract.

Invite the External Party

To invite the External Party to review the contract in DocJuris:

1. Click the Send button at top right.
2. Click the Invite button.
3. Set a Due Date as a reminder for the external party.
4. Enter an email address for the new external party. The invite will be sent to this email address.
5. Add a Message (optional).
6. Click Send.

The external party will receive the invitation to review the contract via email.

Recalling the Contract

After sending an invite, you can recall the contract if you do not want the external party to have access to it anymore.

To Recall the contract:

1. Click Send Settings.
2. Click Recall Contract.
3. Add a Message (optional).
4. Click Recall.

Ending the Review

You can also end the contract review after the contract has been sent. After ending the review, your external party will receive an email notifying them that the review has been ended.

To End the Review:

1. Click Send Settings.
2. Click End Review.
3. Add a Message (optional).
4. Click End Review.

Exporting to Word

At any time during or after the contract review, you can also take the review offline and Export the contract as a Word document. Exporting to Word can also be used as an escape latch in case the external party can’t access a web browser or is otherwise unable to collaborate at the moment.

To Export to Word:

1. Click Send Settings.
2. Click the Export button.
3. Choose either Clean Copy or Original option.
4. Choose which Edits to Export: Our Edits Only or All Edits.
5. Check the boxes for available document options, if desired:
   • Mark this turn as complete and read-only
   • Include redlines when reopening turn
   • Password protect this document
     

     you can leave all boxes unchecked and still Export.

6. Click Email Me or Download to Export the contract as a Word doc.

Arbiter for Non-DocJuris Users

The Arbiter Invitation

The email Invitation to collaborate on your contract via Arbiter will be sent once you have confirmed all of your information pertaining to the contract. Things that will be included in the invitation will be:

• The Due Date
• An Arbiter Link to the contract associated with the invitees email
• An Arbiter Link to forward to other members of the invitees team
• A included note from you if applicable

What Non-DocJuris Users See

Non-DocJuris users will be shown a limited view of the contract editor and only have editing capabilities for sections you have not previously locked before sending an Arbiter invitation.

Features at non-DocJuris users disposal: 

Collaborators will have a few tools available to them when viewing a contract through DocJuris Arbiter. Some of these features include: 

• Access to navigation of the contract such as defined terms, defined Areas, comments, and edits
• Find & Replace functionality
• The ability to add additional collaborators for this review
• Contract editing & formatting
• markup visibility options (e.g. our markups, incoming markups)
• Returning the contract when finished 

Be sure to lock finalized sections of your contract you do not wish to be editable for this review. 

Subsequent Turns

Ending Review

Before starting a new Turn in a contract, consider ending the review of the current Turn. This ensures you can continue collaborating with your External Party using the most recent version.

Resend to Another Party

After recalling or ending a review with one External Party, you can still send the contract to another party for review within the same Turn.

To Resend the contract to a new external party:

1. Click the Send button.
2. Click Invite.
3. Enter a new Due Date and email address for the new External Party.
4. Click Send.

Your new external party will receive an invitation to edit the contract at the email address you entered.

Complete and Reopen Contract

Completing the contract will create a clean execution copy, and the current turn will be marked read-only.

After Completing the contract, you can also Reopen it to create a new editable turn.

To Complete the contract:

1. Click Send.
2. Click Complete Contract.

After completing the contract, you can Invite another external party, Reopen the contract, Sign, or Export.

To Reopen the contract:

1. Click Send.
2. Click the Reopen button to instantly reopen the contract for inviting a new external party.

Sign

When the contract is ready for signature, the contract must be completed before the Sign option is available.

To Sign the contract:

1. Click Send.
2. If the contract hasn’t been set to complete, click Send and Complete Contract to complete it.
   
3. Click Sign.
   
   
4. Select one of the two options for signature:
   • Send to External Party: Send the completed contract to an External Party for signature.
   • Download a Clean Copy: Download a clean PDF and Sign First.
     
5. After sending, a Sent banner will appear in the Contract Editor.
   
   

DocJuris Arbiter also integrates with Adobe Sign through our Microsoft 365 integration. Since completed contracts are downloaded as a clean PDF document, the completed PDF contract can then be opened in Adobe and signatures can proceed.

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