Your new hire starts Monday. The contract is the part you can't wing.
Draft an Ontario employment contract grounded in an employment-law source pack — not a generic template — then run a deterministic screen for the traps that actually get small employers sued: termination language, overtime, vacation, misclassification. Drafting is free; you pay only when you export. A licensed lawyer can take over before anyone signs.
Why employment contracts bite small employers
A termination clause can void itself
Ontario courts strike termination clauses that drift below the statutory floor — and once struck, you owe common-law notice, which is far more. The clause meant to protect you becomes the most expensive sentence in the document.
The template you found is written for another country
Most employment templates online are American. At-will employment does not exist in Ontario, and language borrowed from it imports assumptions Ontario law does not share.
One hire does not justify a retainer
You are hiring one person, not opening an HR department. A few hundred dollars of drafting fees for a single contract is exactly the expense small employers skip — and skipping it is how the traps get in.
The traps are invisible until they cost money
Overtime thresholds, vacation entitlements, contractor-vs-employee classification: nothing looks wrong on the page. The problem surfaces the day the relationship ends, when it is too late to fix the paper.
What EqualDocs does about it
Drafted from an employment-law source pack, not from thin air
For supported jurisdictions, the draft is generated only from an authoritative employment-law source pack for that jurisdiction — the AI is instructed not to invent statutes or figures. If your jurisdiction is not covered yet, the product says so explicitly instead of quietly drafting without grounding.
A deterministic risk screen, not a vibe check
Every draft is screened by fixed rules for the known Ontario failure points — termination language against the statutory floor, overtime, vacation, misclassification — and each finding is listed with the clause it refers to.
Free until you export
Generating and reading the draft costs nothing. The charge lands only when you export the finished document — so a draft you do not use never costs you anything.
A licensed lawyer can take over before anyone signs
For Ontario contracts, the lawyer loop is built in: hand the draft and its risk report to a licensed lawyer for review, with a quote you approve before any work begins.
How it goes
- 1
Describe the role
Position, pay, location, start date. Pick Ontario as the governing law.
- 2
Get the grounded draft and its risk report
The contract and the screen's findings arrive together. Reading both is free.
- 3
Resolve what the screen flagged
Fix flagged clauses, ask about anything unclear, or hand the draft to a licensed lawyer.
- 4
Export and sign
Pay at export, then send it for e-signature. The executed copy stays in your account.
Common questions
- Which provinces are supported?
- Grounded employment drafting currently covers Ontario, with California available for US hires. Other provinces are coming; until then the product tells you explicitly when your jurisdiction is not covered — it never quietly drafts an employment contract without a source pack behind it.
- Is the contract reviewed by a lawyer?
- Not automatically. The draft is AI-generated from an employment-law source pack and screened by deterministic rules — that is a strong starting point, not a legal opinion. For Ontario contracts a licensed lawyer can review the draft before anyone signs, with a quote you approve first. For a first hire, we recommend it.
- What does it cost?
- Drafting and reading the contract, including its risk report, is free. Exporting the finished document costs 150 EqualDocs Credits — about the price of a coffee run, not a retainer. Lawyer review is quoted separately and only ever with your approval before work starts.
- What does the risk screen actually check?
- Fixed, deterministic rules for the documented Ontario failure points: termination language measured against the statutory minimum, overtime treatment, vacation entitlements, and employee-vs-contractor classification. It is rule-based rather than AI-judged, so the same contract always produces the same findings.
Put the contract on real footing before the start date
Draft it free, read the risk report, and only pay when you export. Bring in a lawyer if the hire warrants it.
AI assistance is general information, not legal advice. When your situation needs a lawyer, a licensed one takes it on — at a price you agree to before any work begins.