About us
Cleardocs was conceived in 2000 by its founder, plain-language advocate and former lawyer, Christopher Balmford. In May 2002, Cleardocs launched as a “new-world” provider of legal documents. Now, Cleardocs is a well-known organisation providing legal documents to more than 20,000 people. Some of those people are ordering documents for themselves, others are ordering documents for their clients.
The Cleardocs document management technology enables us to deliver legal documents online — at significantly lower prices than traditional providers. The Cleardocs master documents and question interfaces are written and signed-off by the 200-lawyer Melbourne and Sydney law firm, Maddocks. We help Maddocks to make those documents as clear as they can be.
Plain language At Cleardocs, we're proud of our plain-language approach to life — “Clarity | Simplicity | Ease of use”.
We strive to make our documents — and the “question and answer” interfaces through which you order those documents — as clear as we can. To help you, we add information to our site — for example:
- help text beside the online questions you answer when ordering a document package; and
- guides, legal updates, and frequently asked legal questions, about the document packages we provide online.
All that information is written by our lawyers at Maddocks, with input from us to make it as clear and as useful for you as possible.
Way back in 2002, a client of one of our first accountant customers told the accountant that our documents were “refreshingly clear”. The accountant was kind enough to tell us that and to say that the process of ordering documents from us was “refreshingly” easy.
We continue to try to make our site easy to use and our documents reader-friendly. Indeed, we try to help make documents everywhere reader-friendly — for example, you can read about our MD speaking at plain-language conferences in Portugal and Canada in 2010 here.
Preferred supplier to professional firms Cleardocs is the preferred supplier to more than 8,000 professional accountants, lawyers, and financial planners. We are also a preferred supplier to many large networks of professional firms — including Australia's largest network of accountants, The WHK Group.
Our partners Cleardocs is a proud supporter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Also, we work closely with our lawyers at Maddocks. You can read more about these relationships here.
Innovative company registration technology Cleardocs was the first organisation in Australia to enable people to register companies online at any time — with all the legal documents delivered instantly. The cost is just $549.50 (inc GST). This technology was custom built by Cleardocs.
Innovative document management If you order a document package from us, then at any time before the relevant documents are signed or are lodged with ASIC, you can log in at Cleardocs and change your answers for free — even after you've paid.
Also, you can always return to Cleardocs to access your “library” of all the documents you've ordered from us. If you have ordered any documents for a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund, then we enable you to see those documents:
- by document type, in the “MyDocuments” library; and
- by SMSF, in the “MySMSFs” section where we list the names of the SMSFs for which you have ordered documents — for each SMSF, there's a button for you to click to see all the documents you have ordered for that particular SMSF.
For each SMSF, we also show you which version of our deed that SMSF has — with a link showing you which legal changes are included (and not included) in that version of the deed.
Our SMSF deed has been reviewed and approved by hundreds of superannuation specialists. It is available:
- for new SMSF through our SMSF set up at $137.50; and
- for existing SMSFs through our Update SMSF package for $99.
You can browse our full range of products here.
Online information For all our online legal document packages, you can find useful information under the “Resources” button — at the very top right-hand corner of the page. It's worth a look.
Our helpline You can always call us on 1300 307 343.
Thinking of changing supplier? If you are looking at changing your firm's provider of legal documents, then we help you through that review process.
Best regards
The Cleardocs Team
1300 307 343
