Are you distrustful about contracting a service due to bad past experiences?

We seldom have the belief that the provider will easly comply with the agreed terms by simply signing a simple contract, probably because the person or company we hire gives us confidence, their offices are beautiful, they advertise on networks and their website has several logos of companies to which it professes to provide service.

So, based on these criteria, we decide to sign contracts with such service providers:

• • • In the making of a work of art

• • • To supply materials, products or services

• • • To make major repairs to our home

• • • In the construction of an industrial warehouse

• • • For the administration of our assets or properties

• • • For our network management, advertising of marketing

This sounds nice, but despite having signed a contract, the supplier may fail to comply, whether they are past their due date, causing us to be penalized by our clients, loss of time and loss of trust from our clients, or even worse, they simply disappear with our money.

If they already failed to comply, you can renegotiate the conditions with an alternative justice agreement.

If you are about to sing a contract with a supplier or a service provider that involves a large investment for you, do not risk signing only a contract, it is better to ensure compliance to the conditions of contract by simultaneously entering into an alternative justice agreement. 

The benefits of entering into an alternative justice agreement are that, if you fail to comply with some or all of the conditions of the contract, the agreement will provide you judicial validity because it becomes a court rule that will enforce its compliance before a civil or commercial judge.

On the other hand, if you only had a signed contract and it is breached you will have to hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit. The judge will analyze the claim, the evidence it is presented, and will send officers of the general attorney’s department to investigate the veracity of the information contained in the documents and the transaction. You may have to hire experts in the field to verify the validity of the provided documents. The judge will also notify your supplier, who must hire a lawyer to answer the judge and will begin his/her defense where he/she can present his arguments and delay the process. Furthermore, if he/she does not have the financial capacity to reimburse your money or finish the work, the judge will not be able to demand its compliance. This process will take at least a year and a half to be resolved and the judge’s resolution may not favor you.

On the other hand, if you enter into the contract and an alternative justice agreement at the same time, in an non-compliance event you would have to ask a lawyer to ask the judge to execute the agreement that became a court rule. In this agreement, the certified mediator details the instructions to the judge regarding how he or she should execute it to comply with and protect your investment and your assets. In this case the judge will not investigate, it will only execute the agreement. This will significantly save you the attorney frees and reduces the compliance time to four months.

The alternative justice agreement is drawn up before a person certified by the Alternative Justice Institute. The documentation needed to process it is the following:

1. 1. 1. Identification of the parties, it may be INE voter’s ID, passport, professional license, driver’s license
      2. Proof of address of the parties, a recent utility bill may be phone TELMEX, water SIAPA or electricity CFE
      3. If either one of both parties are legal entities, copies of the following are needed

• • • • • Articles of incorporation

• • • • • Registration in the Public Registry of Property and Commerce Office

• • • • • Power of the legal representative in full force and effect

• • • • • Proof of recent tax situation

• • • • • Notice for the prevention of money laundering issued by the Taxing Authority SAT

• • • • • Contract with the specifications of the type of product, costs, delivery times and methods, payment terms, penalties, among other explicit conditions.

The process is simple if both contracting parties have all the documentation in order. The investment cost of protecting your assets is minimal compared to the benefits you obtain.

Avoid unnecesary risks, ensure the contracting of services, enter into a contract and sign an alternative justice agreement, and obtain judicial certainty, guarantee its full compliance with the agreement and protect your investments and assets.