Copy Taste by Maik Meid from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

One of the questions I frequently get at my speaking gigs is where can people go to find good contract templates online. This question makes me simultaneously happy and nervous. On one hand, I’m happy that the person is asking about their contract needs; however, I’m nervous that they think there might be an acceptable resource online that could replace proper legal advice.

I usually tell these people that contract templates from the internet are a good place to start when doing research on a type of contract and the types of provisions they should include in their agreement. It should be the beginning of their search, not the end. When you look at a contract template online you can never know for sure who wrote it, where it came from, or whether it would be suitable for your needs. There have been many times when I’ve seen someone using a contract for their business that had provisions that made no sense – like a 2-person business that had an operating agreement that required a 2/3 vote to make changes and an Arizona-based business that was using a contract that said the agreement was governed by New Jersey law.

Instead of looking on the internet for a template, you might be better off asking your colleagues in your industry if they would be willing to share their contract templates, depending on where they got them. You are more likely to find provisions that are applicable to your business and the practices of your industry.

Regardless of where you get your templates, it’s always a good idea to have a business lawyer review them before you use them for your company. Otherwise you may find yourself using a contract that is bad for your business, and as long as the provisions of the contract are legal, you could be stuck with it. It may not be as expensive as you think to have a lawyer review your contract in advance. I’ve always said it’s cheaper to hire a lawyer in the beginning to prevent problems than to have to hire one after the fact the clean up the mess.

If you don’t already have a contract template you’re considering using, talk with your lawyer about whether it would be more cost effective for you to find or create your own contract draft for them to review or simply hire a lawyer to create your contract from scratch.

And be equally leery of contract templates created and sold by lawyers. Some of these are good and some of these are crap. I saw an operating agreement this year that was created by a law firm that sells start-up packages for businesses. My client asked me to review the contract to help him resolve a problem with one of the owners. This contract was dozens of pages long, was filled with excessive legalese, and did not address all of my client’s needs; hence, he needed a hire me to help him fix his problem.

Best of luck to everyone whose plans for 2015 include starting a new business. Creating contracts to suit the needs of your business should be one of the many things on your to-do list. If you want to chat with me about your business plans for 2015, feel free to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or you can email me.

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