Counterpart document meaning

In the law, a counterpart is a duplicate document. The term "counterpart" is used in legal documents to describe a copy of a contract that is signed and is considered legally binding, in the same way as the original.

1. What is a counterpart of a document?
2. What does In counterparts mean?
3. What does may be signed in counterpart mean?

What is a counterpart of a document?

Counterpart is a copy or duplicate of a legal instrument. Where an instrument, especially a contract, is signed by the parties on different copies, one of the copies is the original while the others are counterparts.

What does In counterparts mean?

Signing in counterpart means that duplicate contracts or deeds are printed so that there is a separate copy for signing by each party. The opposite situation is where one copy of the contract or deed is printed and signed by all parties to it.

What does may be signed in counterpart mean?

In order to speed up the process of signing a document, the document may be signed 'in counterpart'. This is where a copy of the document is produced for each party signing. The parties then each sign one of the copies rather than all of them, which, when brought together, form a complete executed document.