LEGAL FORMS

Pleading Preparations
Drafting of Documents
Certification
Review of Documents
Notarization
 Essentials in Drafting Legal
Documents
► Title of the Document must be emphasized
► Full names of parties, nationality, capacity, civil
status and residence must be clearly written. Avoid
use of pronouns.
► Clauses must be separated by numbers and
paragraph
► Verbosity should be avoided
► Technical terms must be avoided. If used, it must
be defined
► Neat and free from any erasures.
► Date and place of execution of instrument must be
clearly written
 In case of pleading in civil or
criminal cases
Pertinent provisions of law
Take note of requisites and/or
pre-requisites
 RULE 76

ALLOWANCE OR DISALLOWANCE OF WILL

► Sec. 1. Who may petition for the allowance

of will. - Any executor, devisee, or legatee
named in a will, or any other person
interested in the estate, may, at any time
after the death of the testator, petition the
court having jurisdiction to have the will
allowed, whether the same be in his
possession or not, or is lost or destroyed.
► The testator himself may, during his
lifetime, petition the court for the allowance
of his will.
 Sec. 2. Contents of petition. - A petition for
the allowance of a will must show, so far as
known to the petitioner:
(a) The jurisdictional facts;
(b) The names, ages, and residences of the
heirs, legatees, and devisees of the testator or
decedent;
(c) The probable value and character of the
property of the estate;
(d) The name of the person for whom letters
are prayed;
(e) If the will has not been delivered to the
court, the name of the person having custody
of it.
 Public Document
► Any instrument notarized by a notary public
or a competent public official with the
solemnities required by law
► Binding to third persons
Notarization converts a private document into
a public document thus making that
document admissible in evidence without
further proof of its authenticity.
A notarial document is by law entitled to full
faith and credit upon its face.
Courts, administrative agencies and the public
at large must be able to rely upon the
acknowledgment executed by a notary public
and appended to a private instrument. (
Rosalinda Bernardo vs. Atty. Mario Ramos A.C.
No. 5645 July 2, 2002)
WHEN DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE
MADE PUBLIC
 Art. 1356. Contracts shall be obligatory, in
whatever form they may have been entered
into, provided all the essential requisites for
their validity are present. However, when the
law requires that a contract be in some form in
order that it may be valid or enforceable, or
that a contract be proved in a certain way, that
requirement is absolute and indispensable. In
such cases, the right of the parties stated in
the following article cannot be exercised.
Art. 1357. If the law requires a document
or other special form, as in the acts and
contracts enumerated in the following
article, the contracting parties may
compel each other to observe that form,
once the contract has been perfected.
This right may be exercised
simultaneously with the action upon the
contract
 Art. 1358. The following must
appear in a public document:
(1) Acts and contracts which have
for their object the creation,
transmission, modification or
extinguishment of real rights over
immovable property; sales of real
property or of an interest therein a
governed by Articles 1403, No. 2,
and 1405;
(2) The cession, repudiation or renunciation of
hereditary rights or of those of the conjugal
partnership of gains;
(3) The power to administer property, or any
other power which has for its object an act
appearing or which should appear in a public
document, or should prejudice a third person;
(4) The cession of actions or rights
proceeding from an act appearing in a public
document.
 All other contracts where the
amount involved exceeds five
hundred pesos must appear in
writing, even a private one. But
sales of goods, chattels or things
in action are governed by
Articles, 1403, No. 2 and 1405.
 Art. 1403. The following contracts are
unenforceable, unless they are ratified:
(2) Those that do not comply with the Statute
of Frauds as set forth in this number. In the
following cases an agreement hereafter made
shall be unenforceable by action, unless the
same, or some note or memorandum, thereof,
be in writing, and subscribed by the party
charged, or by his agent; evidence, therefore,
of the agreement cannot be received without
the writing, or a secondary evidence of its
contents:
(a) An agreement that by its terms is
not to be performed within a year
from the making thereof;
(b) A special promise to answer for
the debt, default, or miscarriage of
another;
(c) An agreement made in
consideration of marriage, other
than a mutual promise to marry;
 (d) An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels or
things in action, at a price not less than five hundred
pesos, unless the buyer accept and receive part of
such goods and chattels, or the evidences, or some
of them, of such things in action or pay at the time
some part of the purchase money; but when a sale
is made by auction and entry is made by the
auctioneer in his sales book, at the time of the sale,
of the amount and kind of property sold, terms of
sale, price, names of the purchasers and person on
whose account the sale is made, it is a sufficient
memorandum;
 (e) An agreement of the leasing
for a longer period than one year,
or for the sale of real property or
of an interest therein;
(f) A representation as to the
credit of a third person.
FORM AND SIZE OF DOCUMENTS
► Thecourt motu proprio Resolved to further
amend Sections 15 and 16, Rule 136 of the
Rules of Court, as well as its Resolution of
Sept. 17, 1974 as amended by Resolution
dated February 23, 1984, as follows:
Effective immediately and until further actions
of the Court, all pleadings, briefs,
memoranda, motions and other papers to be
filed before the Supreme Court and the Court
of Appeals shall either be typewritten on good
quality, unglazed paper, or mimeographed or
printed on newsprint or mimeograph paper,
11 inches in length by 8-1/2 inches in width
(commonly known as letter size) or 13 inches
in length by 8-1/2 inches in width (commonly
known as legal size).
There shall be a margin at the top and at
the left-hand side of each page not less
than 1-1/2 inches width. The contents
shall be written double-spaced and only
one side of the page shall be used.
 In the Supreme Court, eighteen (18) legible
copies of the petition shall initially be filed,
and eighteen (18) copies of subsequent
pleadings, briefs, memoranda, motions and
other papers shall be filed in cases for
consideration of the Court en banc and nine
(9) copies in cases to be heard before a
division. One (1) copy thereof shall be served
upon each of the adverse parties in either
case.
 In the Court of Appeals, seven
(7) legible copies of pleadings,
briefs, memoranda, motions and
other papers shall be filed and
one (1) copy thereof shall be
served on each of the adverse
parties.
 SEC. 16. Printed papers. - All papers
required by these rules to be printed
shall be printed with black ink on
unglazed paper, with pages six inches in
width by nine inches in length, pamphlet
form. The type used shall not be smaller
than twelve point. The paper used shall
be of sufficient weight to prevent the
printing upon one side from being visible
upon the other.