A Certificate of ILA (Independent Legal Advice) is a document that that your lawyer will sign and attach to your written agreement after your lawyer has fully explained the terms of the agreement to you and confirmed that you are signing the agreement voluntarily.

It is important for both parties to get a Certificate of ILA when signing an agreement because it confirms that they have each met with a lawyer and they both understand the terms they’re agreeing to.  Legal verbiage can be difficult to understand. It’s vital that you know exactly what you’re agreeing to before you sign an agreement, including the consequences, limitations, and potential repercussions of the agreement. An experienced family lawyer can help you understand the terms of your agreement and will explain how the agreement could potentially affect your rights in the future.

At The Law Portal, we’ve had several clients come to our office to get ILA on an agreement that they intended to sign but were shocked when we explained the potential consequences of the agreement. For this reason, we cannot stress enough how important it is to meet with an experienced lawyer before signing an agreement or contract.

You may not want your spouse to get legal advice about your agreement, but it could be detrimental to you if your spouse does not get a Certificate of Independent Legal Advice. An agreement can be varied or set aside in the future if one of the parties later decides that the agreement was significantly unfair and that party didn’t get ILA before signing. Parties can sign a “Waiver of Independent Legal Advice,” but that might not be enough if the agreement is deemed to be significantly unfair to that person – especially if that person claims that they were under duress (pressured) to sign the agreement. It is much more difficult to have an agreement set aside if both parties attach a Certificate of Independent Legal Advice to the agreement.