Legal Opinion in Ukraine
Before concluding any transaction, it is necessary to carefully analyze all its conditions, as well as the legal requirements to which such a transaction must comply.
What is a legal opinion
Legal Opinion is a service that will allow you to get a qualified opinion on the subject, object and other issues related to the conclusion of the transaction.
The legal opinion must be drawn up by a specialist who possesses the necessary practical and theoretical knowledge in a certain area of law.
The specificity of the service is that, depending on its task, all the theses and conclusions set forth in it are based either on the norms of the current legislation, or legislation applicable to moment of a certain event.
Why do I need a legal opinion:
– Inform about the validity of the transaction or issue.
– Identify legal risks that need to be take into account and assessed.
First of all, the legal opinion is drawn up not only on the instructions, but also exclusively in the interests of the client and cannot simultaneously protect the interests of third parties (for example, both parties to the transaction).
Of course, it is necessary to take into account the fact that if the activity to be investigated violates the legislative norms, it is accordingly impossible to obtain an opinion that answers the question posed. It should be noted that no self-respecting law firm will risk its credibility and will not draw up a legal opinion on the legality of non-legal activities.
Features of the preparation of a legal opinion
The result of legal analysis should be characterized by full legal clarity and accuracy.
In preparing the Legal Opinion, it is necessary to avoid assumptions, conjectures and reservations, as well as ambiguous statements that will subsequently remove the burden of responsibility for incorrect conclusions and recommendations.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that when writing a legal opinion on absolutely any issues, lawyers are responsible for their opinions, as they conduct legal and factual research, analysis and verification.
For this reason providing a legal opinion is a rather time-consuming process, and at the same time, the cost of such services depends not only on the question posed, but also on the input data.
A qualitative conclusion is distinguished by the certainty of the source data, the clarity of the wording, validity with links to legislation, the presence of unambiguous conclusions.
It is important to note that the legal opinion should not be regarded as a substitute for the legal support of the transaction itself. The parties should not expect that upon receipt of an opinion they receive detailed instructions on the implementation of the project or the implementation of the agreement with their own hands.
The main stages of Legal Opinion:
Background
– In this section of the legal opinion, reference information is usually indicated on the transaction information provided by the client, documents in respect of which a conclusion is given. This section also contains information on the applicable law, depending on the jurisdiction in which the relationship.
Documents reviewed and enquiries made
– It reveals the process and results of studying the data submitted by the client, as well as the information additionally collected by the performer, necessary for the preparation of the opinion. As a rule, when describing documents, it is indicated whether their originals, projects or copies were examined.
When describing the work of collecting additional information, information about requests filed with the state registration, tax, patent or other administrative authorities is reflected, as well as the result, including the “negative”.
Assumptions
– The assumptions in the Legal Opinion directly depend on the starting point of the conclusion, which will become the basis for making further conclusions, and will make it possible to analyze the correctness and accuracy of the review of the transaction. This section includes standard hypotheses, as well as certain events.
Examples of Standard Assumptions:
– Parties to the transaction have the necessary legal capacity to conclude it;
– The parties have a real intention to conclude a transaction, as well as sufficient resources to fulfill their obligations;
– All original documents are genuine,
– All information provided from official sources is complete, authentic and current.
Non-standard assumptions:
– constitute significant circumstances adopted by the lawyer for the starting point, which are a feature of the transaction, project, facility, which are legally significant for the parties.
Opinion
– This section contains answers to questions posed by the client, including: legal conclusion and (or) legal analysis of the transaction.
The opinion may contain reservations, which are stipulated by the nature of the transaction. For example, one may come across a statement regarding the need to apply foreign law if the obligation must be fulfilled outside the jurisdiction specified in the Background, up to the information that the fulfillment of such an obligation cannot be enforced in home jurisdiction or not at all subject to judicial protection.
As a result, you receive a professional recommendation regarding the best practices in a particular legal situation. However, it should be borne in mind that the opinion expressed in the conclusion is not a guarantee of a specific result.
How to get Legal Opinion
The lawyers of our association have extensive experience in preparing opinions for both foreign and local companies and individuals. Today, the Legal Opinion of our law firm is used in a large number of industries, including such as construction, agriculture, manufacturing, trade.
