Jurisdiction update, April 1, 2025
the EU: penalty clause doctrine
The problem
This one comes up in almost every matter review, and the answer is less settled than the confidence around it suggests.
What makes this hard is that the signal is distributed. A single clause read in isolation looks fine. Read against the definitions section and two schedules, the same clause does something different.
What we do about it
The register is the deliverable. A finding without an owner and a date is an observation, not a control.
In the current build this runs as part of the standard pass, so it applies to every document in the set rather than only the ones someone thought to check.
Where it breaks
Scanned originals with poor image quality remain the weakest input. So do agreements that were assembled from three precedents and never reconciled, which is common in long-lived supplier relationships.
None of this removes the reviewer. It moves the reviewer to the part of the work where judgement actually pays.
Working notes from the Lawrs team. General information about legal technology and practice, not legal advice.