China Legal Hub: How Our Fixed-Price Contract Review Works

Foreign companies looking for China contract review face a common problem: they do not know what the service includes, what it costs, or how long it takes until they contact a law firm and begin negotiating. China Legal Hub was built to solve this by making every aspect of the contract review process transparent before the engagement begins.

This article walks through the entire process from the client's perspective — what happens at each stage, what the client receives, and how the pricing works.

Step One: Get an Instant Quote

The process starts at the contract review service page. The client selects the review tier (Contract Risk Review, Bilingual Contract Review, or Advanced Contract Review), enters the contract type (manufacturing agreement, distribution agreement, employment contract, joint venture agreement, etc.), and specifies the approximate page count. The system generates an instant fixed-price quote — no phone calls, no emails, no waiting.

The pricing is based on objective parameters: the service tier, contract type, and length. A 15-page manufacturing agreement at the risk review tier prices differently from a 40-page joint venture agreement at the advanced review tier, because the latter requires significantly more analysis. But the price is always known in advance and does not change after the engagement begins.

Step Two: Submit Your Contract

After accepting the quote, the client uploads the contract through a secure document portal. For bilingual contracts, both the English and Chinese versions should be uploaded. The client can include a note highlighting specific concerns — for example, "We are particularly concerned about the penalty clause in Article 9 and want to know if it is enforceable" or "The supplier insists on Chinese court litigation rather than CIETAC arbitration — what are the implications?"

The system confirms receipt and the engagement begins. A formal engagement letter is issued, establishing the attorney-client relationship and the associated confidentiality protections. All client documents are stored on encrypted servers and are never shared with third parties.

Step Three: Licensed PRC Attorneys Review the Contract

Licensed PRC attorneys conduct the review in the language versions provided. For bilingual contracts, the attorneys read both the English and Chinese texts in their original form — not through translation. The review covers enforceability of each material provision under PRC Civil Code, applicable CISG provisions (if the transaction involves parties in different CISG Contracting States, the CISG applies automatically under Article 1(1)(a) unless excluded), validity of the dispute resolution clause, consistency between the English and Chinese versions, regulatory compliance requirements, and counterparty legal status verification (for advanced tier engagements).

The attorneys apply a red, yellow, and green risk classification system. Red classifications identify provisions that pose critical legal risk — clauses that may be unenforceable, penalty amounts that exceed PRC legal limits, dispute resolution clauses that are procedurally defective, or IP provisions that fail to protect the client's rights. Yellow classifications mark provisions that present moderate risk and should be renegotiated if possible. Green classifications confirm provisions that are legally sound and commercially standard.

Step Four: Track Progress in Real Time

Throughout the review period, the client can log into the online dashboard and see the current status of the engagement. There is no need to send follow-up emails asking for status updates or schedule check-in calls. The dashboard shows whether the review is in progress, under quality assurance, or ready for delivery.

If the reviewing attorneys have questions about the contract or need additional context, they communicate through the portal's messaging system. This creates a written record of all communications, which is more reliable and searchable than phone conversations or scattered email threads.

Step Five: Receive the Deliverable

The deliverable depends on the tier selected. The Contract Risk Review delivers a structured PDF report with risk classifications for each major provision, specific findings explaining the legal basis for each classification, and actionable recommendations. The Bilingual Contract Review adds a discrepancy analysis identifying every material difference between the English and Chinese texts, with an assessment of which version a Chinese tribunal would likely follow. The Advanced Contract Review adds a Microsoft Word document with tracked changes and clause-by-clause annotations, counterparty background verification results, and a breach risk analysis modeling the most likely dispute scenarios and their outcomes.

Delivery timelines are defined by tier: five to seven business days for the risk review and bilingual review, seven to ten business days for the advanced review. These timelines begin when the contract is uploaded and the engagement is confirmed.

What Makes This Different

Traditional law firm contract review involves unpredictable costs, uncertain timelines, and opaque processes. The client does not know what the review will cost until the invoice arrives, does not know when the review will be completed, and has no visibility into the review process while it is underway.

Fixed-price contract review at China Legal Hub reverses each of these: the cost is known before work begins, the timeline is defined and tracked, and the client has real-time visibility into the engagement status. The reviewing attorneys are licensed PRC practitioners with bilingual English-Chinese capability and practical experience in CISG application and CIETAC arbitration — the same qualifications that matter in traditional engagements, delivered through a more efficient process.

Under CISG Article 35, goods must conform to the description agreed between the parties. The same principle applies to the legal services described here: the deliverable matches the service description, at the price that was quoted, within the timeline that was promised.

To see what fixed-price contract review costs for your specific contract, get an instant quote from licensed PRC attorneys.