What the score measures
The Fairness Score measures balance. It is about how evenly the document treats the people who sign it.
It does not measure legality. A fully legal contract can still lean hard toward one party. The opposite happens too: an agreement that sounds reasonable can still conflict with a law that applies to it. Those are separate questions, and the report answers them in separate places. Balance gets the score. The law gets the jurisdiction notes.
How to read the number
Start with the scale. In the sample reports, the score sits on a bar marked from 0 to 100, so you can see at a glance where the contract lands.
Then read the label beside it. The samples carry three different labels: Critical, High risk, and Moderate risk for a working draft.
Here is how the samples spread across the scale:
- 24, Critical. A debt resolution services agreement. By the report’s reading, most of what the program saves goes to fees and tax, and the debt keeps growing while you wait.
- 31, High risk. An offer letter packet. In that report’s short version, the employee carries the income swings, the trip to a distant courtroom and a two-year restriction on where to work next.
- 38. The independent contractor agreement used as an illustration on the Stipulex homepage.
- 72, Moderate risk. The working draft of an operating agreement. The report calls it a genuinely balanced draft whose risk lives in what is still undecided.
What the score leaves out
A single number is a summary, and a summary always drops detail. Here is what you will not find in the score itself.
- Which clauses. The score does not point to a page. The findings do. Each one quotes the contract and explains what the language does.
- Whether a term is legal. That is the job of the jurisdiction notes, which describe how the governing state tends to treat each flagged term. The samples also include a separate compliance analysis of the offer letter packet. It reports its own number, a Compliance index of 24, with the label Attorney review advised.
- Whether to sign. The score informs a decision; it does not make one. A licensed attorney in your state can advise you on that. Stipulex cannot.
- Your situation. Ratings go by the words on the page. The score cannot know whether you have other offers, how much the deal matters to you or what the other side might agree to change.
A higher score can still hide a serious clause
A higher score does not clear every clause. The illustration at the top of the Stipulex homepage shows a vendor master services agreement scoring 78 that still carries a High flag for uncapped indemnification in §9.2.
The operating agreement sample scores 72 and still lists three high-severity findings. Its report describes them as open questions rather than buried traps: the ownership percentage, the removal mechanism and a non-solicit that needs California-specific structuring.
The reverse holds as well. A low score does not mean every part of a contract is bad. The offer letter packet scores 31, yet its report names the non-solicitation attachment as the cleanest document in the packet.
So take the score as your first read, and the flags as your second.
Whose side the score is on
In the operating agreement sample, both members will live under the same terms. For a contract like that, the report says plainly that its findings are scored for the document rather than for either side.
Sharing the score
A number is easier to pass along than pages of findings. If you bring a report to an advisor, a business partner or the other side of the table, the score gives them the overall picture in one line, and the findings give them the clauses, quoted.
See the scores in full
Each sample is illustrative. Its contract is a synthetic composite, not a real agreement.
- Debt resolution services agreement, Fairness Score 24
- Offer letter with Attachments A–D, Fairness Score 31
- Operating agreement working draft, Fairness Score 72
- Offer letter compliance analysis, Compliance index 24
For everything from upload to report, see how Stipulex works. For who is behind it, see About us, or go back to the Stipulex homepage.
Questions people ask
What is a contract fairness score?
At Stipulex, it is one number from 0 to 100 for how evenly a contract treats both sides. You get it with your report, next to a short label in plain words.
How can I tell if my contract is fair?
The Fairness Score gives you a first answer, and the flagged clauses show you where to look. Fair and legal are separate questions, so the report also notes how the governing law treats each flagged term. Stipulex does not provide legal advice. For a decision with real stakes, a licensed attorney in your state can help.
Does a high Fairness Score mean my contract is legal?
No. The score measures balance, not legality. A balanced contract can still conflict with a law that applies to it, which is why the report includes jurisdiction notes as well.
Can a contract with a high score still have a serious problem?
Yes. In the samples, an operating agreement scores 72 and still lists three high-severity findings.
Is the Fairness Score legal advice?
No. It is information about the document. Stipulex does not provide legal advice and does not represent you.