Built by MGL Asociados · Employment lawyers since 2004
Colombian employment contracts, tutelas and petitions
handled on time, with lawyers behind every decision.
Bonsai reviews every contract before it is signed, tracks the deadline of every tutela and employee petition, and delivers each answer with the statute and case law behind it. It was built and is backed by MGL Asociados, a Colombian employment-law firm that has advised companies for more than 20 years.
- ContractFixed term · Payroll analyst5.5 / 10
- TutelaReinforced job securityDue in 2 days
- PetitionEmployee petition · Employment certificate8 days left
Employment contract
Fixed term · 6 months
Tutela (constitutional claim)
Reinforced job security
- Admissibility analysed
- Facts checked against the records
- Applicable case law cited
Employee petition
Request for an employment certificate
- Classified: documents and information
- Substantive response drafted
Reviewed with MGL Asociados' criteria · A lawyer reviews and signs
Why trust Bonsai
What is Bonsai?
Bonsai is the Colombian employment-law platform built by MGL Asociados, a Bogotá employment-law firm with more than 20 years of practice. It validates and drafts employment contracts under the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo (Colombia's labour code), tracks the deadlines of tutelas and employee petitions, and drafts the responses citing the applicable statute, article and ruling. It is used by companies with high hiring volumes, employment platforms and law firms, and the firm stands behind the legal criteria the platform applies.
Everything rests on two foundations: Colombian employment law and the criteria of MGL Asociados. On top of them, Bonsai places every employment matter and reviews it against the law and the firm's judgment.
1 · MGL employment-law map
Every matter is placed in its subject before it is reviewed.
- Employment relationship
- Hiring
- Fixed-term contract
- Indefinite-term contract
- Work-scope contract
- Working time and pay
- Termination
- Social security
- Petitions and tutelas
- Hiring
2 · How a fixed-term contract is reviewed
Every check rests on the statute and on the firm's reading of it.
- CheckProbation period within the legal limit
- Legal basisCST art. 78
- MGL criteriaHow the firm applies it to short contracts
- CheckRenewals within the permitted duration
- Legal basisCST art. 46, as amended by Ley 2466 de 2025
- MGL criteriaHow the firm applies it to each renewal
The foundation of everything
MGL Asociados' criteria
Legal concepts and contract rules built by the firm since 2004.
Colombian employment law
The Constitution, the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo (labour code), Ley 2466 de 2025, decrees and high-court case law.
Who it is for
The same firm criteria, wherever each team works.
Companies with high hiring volumes
For the HR and legal teams of companies with hundreds or thousands of employees: every contract reviewed before signing, the whole workforce re-audited after each reform, and employee tutelas and petitions with their deadlines under control.
See contract validation (in Spanish) →EOR and payroll platforms
EOR, global payroll and staffing platforms hiring in Colombia without in-house employment counsel. An in-country legal partner, backed by MGL Asociados and embedded in your product by API or MCP.
See the solution →Law firms
More matters without more billable hours: batch validation and drafts of petitions and tutelas with the grounding already cited. The lawyer reviews and signs.
See the solution (in Spanish) →The three fronts where companies lose cases
A badly drafted contract, a tutela answered late, a petition without a substantive reply. Bonsai covers all three with the firm's experience, not with a generic template.
Employment contracts
Every contract validated clause by clause before signing, and new ones drafted to the right modality: fixed term, indefinite term, work-scope or apprenticeship.
One or thousands, with the CST article behind every finding.
See the module (in Spanish) →
Employment tutelas
The deadline to respond, usually one to three days, tracked from service, and a draft with admissibility analysed and the applicable case law cited.
A lawyer reviews and signs before filing.
See the module (in Spanish) →
Employee petitions
Every employee petition classified, with its legal term counted in business days and a substantive reply ready to review.
Fifteen business days as the general rule, under Ley 1755 de 2015.
See the module (in Spanish) →How it works
From document to decision, with MGL's criteria at every step
Bonsai does not answer from a generic model. Every contract, tutela or petition goes through the legal concepts and contract rules MGL Asociados has built over more than 20 years, and ends in a lawyer's hands.
Step 1
A case comes in
- Employment contract
- Tutela
- Employee petition
Through the platform or the API.
Step 2 · Bonsai agent
Classifies and analyses point by point
Identifies the modality, subject and deadline, and checks each point against:
- MGL legal conceptsHow the firm reads each provision, checked against the high courts.
- MGL contract rulesWhat a contract must meet for its modality.
- Law in forceCST, statutes and case law, up to date with Ley 2466 de 2025.
Criteria built by MGL Asociados since 2004
Step 3
A grounded result
- Findings with the statute cited
- Draft response
- Deadline tracked
Step 4
A lawyer decides
Your team reviews and signs. If the case needs more, MGL Asociados takes it.
How it reviews a contract
Every clause is checked against the firm's contract rules and legal concepts. Whatever falls short comes back with the statute that requires it and the MGL rule that caught it, so your lawyer verifies instead of searching.
- Compliant· CST art. 39
Clause 1
Parties, role, salary and place of work
- Exceeds the legal limit· CST art. 78 · MGL rule
Clause 2
Three-month probation period
- Review· CST art. 128 · MGL concept
Clause 3
Monthly bonus without a non-salary agreement
- Compliant· CST art. 46 · MGL rule
Clause 4
30-day notice of non-renewal
Why templates and spreadsheets no longer cut it
Most companies handle contracts with a template someone reviews every now and then, and tutelas and petitions with an email and a spreadsheet. Between one review and the next the law changes, and a missed deadline gives no warning.
Template and spreadsheet
“Our contract template was reviewed last year.”
- Source
- None
- Updates
- Occasional
- Deadlines
- In a spreadsheet
Bonsai
“The agreed probation period exceeds the two months allowed by CST art. 78.”
- Source
- Article and ruling
- Updates
- When the law changes
- Deadlines
- Alert per case
Built by lawyers
Built by an employment-law firm, not by a software team adapting a generic model.
Bonsai was born inside MGL Asociados. Its AI agent reasons with the criteria the firm applies when it advises companies and when it litigates: the statute, the case law and more than 20 years of practice, updated with every reform, such as Ley 2466 de 2025.
Colombian law, not generic law
A model trained on many countries' laws cannot tell the CST from a Spanish decree or an ILO convention. This system takes the Colombian legal order as its normative base, not as a comparative reference.
Legal concepts written by the firm
The system does not interpret the law on its own. It starts from the concepts MGL Asociados has developed over more than 20 years of practice, checked against the case law of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. That accumulated doctrine, not the bare text of an article, sets each provision's reach.
Hierarchy of norms before speed
When two provisions overlap, a generic model cannot tell which prevails. This system applies the Colombian hierarchy of norms: when the statute governs, when the implementing decree does and when the collective agreement does.
Precision before the appearance of certainty
A generic model answers confidently even without legal grounding. This system flags when a question needs professional judgment: in law, a wrong answer stated with certainty does more harm than declining to answer.
It does not replace the lawyer. It supports their judgment.
The system does not displace the legal professional. It lets them walk into the hearing, the negotiation or the contract review with the legal grounding already gathered and verifiable, in less time and with less room for operational error.
Three ways to work with Bonsai
HR and legal teams work in the web platform; your engineering team connects it by API or MCP. The same grounded answer arrives through any of the three.
Web platform
Your team uploads contracts, tutelas and petitions, reviews the findings and exports the responses. No development needed.
REST API
Generation and validation from your backend. A structured response, with an audit trail.
MCP server
Your product's agent consults Colombian employment-law criteria as one more tool.
One MCP call
→ ask_legal_question
{
"query": "How long can a probation period run
on an indefinite-term contract?",
"asOfDate": "2025-06-01"
}
← "Two months. Article 78 of the CST sets that cap…"
citations: [ "CST art. 76", "CST art. 78" ]
confidenceBand: "high"
partial: falseBacked by MGL Asociados
Behind Bonsai stands a practising employment-law firm, not just a model. MGL Asociados advises large Colombian companies on every employment matter, and when a case needs a lawyer, the firm takes it. The criteria that validate your contracts are the same ones the firm argues in court.
Track record
20+ years
Advising companies on Colombian employment law since 2004.
Specialty
Employment
Contracts, terminations, union protection and public-sector hiring. Not general law.
Based in
Bogotá
Qualified lawyers practising before Colombian courts.
Your data does not train public models
Use of documents and queries is governed by agreements with your organisation: limited purpose, defined retention and role-based access.
Traceability in every answer
Every output cites the source behind it, so your team can verify it before signing.
Habeas Data from the contract
Templates include the personal-data processing consent that Colombian law requires.
Bonsai is not a substitute for legal advice: it speeds up research and drafting, and professional responsibility rests with whoever reviews and signs. How we handle data (in Spanish) · Meet the firm.
Frequently asked questions
Guidance only; contractual and policy detail is agreed with your team.
Who is behind Bonsai?
MGL Asociados, a Bogotá employment-law firm founded in 2004 that advises large Colombian companies on every employment matter. The firm built Bonsai, maintains the legal criteria its agent applies and has its lawyers take the cases that need professional judgment.
What happens if my case needs a lawyer?
MGL Asociados takes it. The firm supports the company on any employment need (hiring, terminations, reinforced job security, labour inspections, tutelas and lawsuits) with the same criteria Bonsai applies.
Does it work for a company with thousands of employees?
Yes. Contracts are validated in batches, so the whole workforce can be re-reviewed after a reform, and every tutela and petition sits with its deadline in view in one inbox for HR and legal.
How long does a Colombian employer have to answer an employment tutela?
Whatever the judge sets, usually one to three days, under article 19 of Decreto 2591 de 1991. If the employer does not file its report on time, the facts are presumed true, and the judge rules within ten days at most.
Which clauses are mandatory in a Colombian employment contract?
The parties, the role and its duties, the place of work, the pay and how it is paid, the working hours and the contract's duration. Depending on the type, add the probation period (two months at most on an indefinite-term contract, CST art. 78), IP assignment and consent to personal-data processing. Bonsai validates each against the provision that requires it.
Does Bonsai replace a lawyer?
No. It speeds up research and drafting; professional responsibility rests with the team that reviews and signs. That is why every output cites the statute and ruling behind it: so a lawyer can verify it, not trust it blindly.
How does Bonsai integrate with a payroll or EOR platform?
By REST API from your backend, or by MCP server if your product already runs agents. The response is structured, with citations and a confidence band that tells you when to escalate to human review.
What happens when Colombian employment law changes?
Templates and validation rules are updated against the law in force, not in a quarterly review. The 2025 labour reform (Ley 2466) shows why it matters: it changed hiring conditions and left contracts signed weeks earlier out of compliance.
Can I upload contracts containing personal data?
Yes, under the flow agreed with your organisation: limited purpose, defined retention and role-based access. Processing follows Colombia's Habeas Data law.
Which file formats does it accept?
PDF, Word and plain text. Scanned images too, when the flow agreed with your team includes optical character recognition.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on scope. Typical pilots take weeks, not months, with incremental deliverables and short role-based training.
Tell us about your case.
We review your question and show you how the platform would answer it. No commitment.