- [Rebecca] Hi, I'm Rebecca.
- [Meghan] And I'm Meghan.
- [Rebecca] And in this video, using CLE's Document Builder, we'll show you how to draft a marriage agreement from the beginning, choose alternate clauses, view secondary information for each clause, and print and save a copy of the agreement in Word format.
- [Meghan] Rebecca, my client Mr. Charming has asked me to draft a marriage agreement prior to his wedding next month. Mr. Charming comes from a family with significant wealth, and a very large, castle-like home. His fiancé, who has been working as house cleaner, has little to no assets. He would like a marriage agreement to protect the property he's inherited and intends to pass on to his children. He's happy to share in any of the wealth they build together. His fiancé has an interesting request. She has asked that the agreement include a clause about the sharing of household chores, as she feels she's been taken advantage of in this area in the past. I've heard from a colleague that Courthouse Libraries may have precedents to help. In particular, I'm really looking to draft an entire agreement from the beginning.
- [Rebecca] Okay, I think a great place to start would be with the CLE Document Builder. And this is a relatively new feature of the CLE platform, and one that I think will suit your needs well. The document builder is available on all of our public computers through the CLE online icon. Once you open CLE, the username and password should automatically populate and you just need to select enter.
- [Meghan] I have some access to CLE back at my office, but I only subscribe to the Family Practice manual. Is it there?
- [Rebecca] The document builder for family law is actually found in the Family Law Agreements manual, which you can access through the library subscription by clicking on practice manuals and then the title. Then click on the document builder on the left side of the screen, and then select marriage agreement and give your file a name in order to start working on it.
- [Meghan?] Okay, let's call it file number 799-001.
- [Rebecca] Now you'll want to move to the box below to start selecting your terms.
- [Meghan] Why does it start with a 16? Can we scroll above that?
- [Rebecca] It's starting at 16 because the number refers to the chapter in this book where the clauses are found. 16 is the beginning of your options, and you can see it as the section on clauses for cohabitation and marriage agreements.
- [Meghan] Okay, that makes sense.
- [Rebecca] Now you simply start placing a check mark beside those clauses that interest you.
- [Meghan] Oh, fun! Well, the parties are not living together. I know I'd like the intention to marry, marriage agreement, status of parties, gross income clauses.
- [Rebecca] Okay, and you'll see that as we place a check beside each of those options, they begin to automatically populate the agreement on the right.
- [Meghan] Oh, that's great! What if I decide I want to take one of the clauses out?
- [Rebecca] You just remove the check mark, which will remove the clause from the agreement.
- [Meghan] Perfect! What's with the reference to the different versions?
- [Rebecca] These are showing you where you have options for different language within this clause.
- [Meghan] Oh, so I have to make a decision about which one I want to use. So in some cases, I might need to go and do some more research on this.
- [Rebecca] Yes, but this is where one of the strengths of the product really comes in. If you would like to read more about your choices, and the law that governs this area, it's as simple as clicking on the hyperlink section numbers below.
- [Meghan] Oh that's what those are. I thought they might be some kind of numbering built into the agreement. So, I need to go back and delete those afterwards?
- [Rebecca] No, when you're done and ready to download your completed file, those numbers will automatically disappear.
- [Meghan] That's an excellent feature. Can you show me how this works?
- [Rebecca] Sure! Remember to always click the reference below, and it will open up this section in the text.
- [Meghan] Oh, great! And if I want to get back to my agreement?
- [Rebecca] Just click the document builder tab to expand it, and it'll bring you back to the agreement.
- [Meghan] Okay, so the big factors for me in this agreement are providing for the family residence, the inherited assets, and a clause about the chores. I can see as you scroll that there are a number of clauses I'll want relating to those assets, although I'm not seeing anything with respect to household duties yet. Do I have to read through the whole list?
- [Rebecca] One shortcut might be to use the Control+F button to bring up your find box on this page. We can search for household, and I see it brings up a clause specific to this. Keep in mind that if we searched chores, it wouldn't have found it. So if you don't find what you need this way, please do have a look through the list of clauses.
- [Meghan] This is great. I'll play with adding a few more of my standard clauses back at the office, but could we add just a signature block?
- [Rebecca] Yes, I think that's in section 17, at the end of concluding clauses. So I'll just open that and scroll to the bottom.
- [Meghan] Now I noticed this clause indicates that it's a version one, but I don't see a version two. Where is it?
- [Rebecca] When there are different options for the wording of an entire clause, the document builder defaults to version one, and the rest are available through the drop-down on the left-hand side of the screen.
- [Meghan] My client's really quite old fashioned, so I think I'll stick with the older sounding language. This has been really helpful, so how do I take it with me?
- [Rebecca] When you're finished with your agreement, hit save and then scroll back to the top of your agreement. You'll see that a Word icon has appeared and clicking on this will download the file. If you want to continue to work on it at the library, you'll just have to click enable editing to be able to modify the document.
- [Meghan] That's wonderful! So now I just have to customize it with my client's nformation.
- [Rebecca] And don't forget that using the find and replace feature on Word can save you a lot of time here. For example, selecting name 1 and replacing that with Prince Charming, will allow you to automatically replace all of those references at once.
- [Meghan] Definitely a timesaver. So, do I have the option to email it?
- [Rebecca] Not directly from CLE, but you can download the file to my documents on the public computer and then email yourself from any web-based email account. And you could also save it to a USB drive.
- [Meghan] Well this has been really great, Rebecca. Thank you so much!
- [Rebecca] You're welcome, Meghan! That brings us to the end of this tutorial. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact us here at Courthouse Libraries BC.