Re: contract samples

Ivan, no one will take you serious when you preach "use a professional" and
yet you have a "do it yourself" web site. Enough said.

In the REAL world of "small" business a hand shake, some emails or other
written communication usually serves as sufficient agreement. Keep in mind
this is for US,
for jobs totaling under the "small claims" court (conciliation court)
limits for your
state (assuming the work is within your state). The reality is you gamble
on a small job whatever payment you do not collect up front w/o a contract.
If you have a contract you're still gambling that you'll be able to
collect. Odds are if it goes to court you'll spend many precious hours to
fight your case and even if you win you still need to collect.

Now, if the job is significantly larger than what is allowed under your
state's small claims it would probably be a good idea to have a contract.
Rather than spend a lot and have your own drafted if you are dealing with a
large firm let THEM draft the contract. Take the contact to YOUR attorney
and have them "advise" you on any modifications you will need. If you try
to draft your own, or have your attorney draft it and submit it to the big
corp most likely their legal team will kick it back to you with a tons of
changes and slow the process. If you want the work, play the game their way
and let them go first. Make no mistake it will be drafted in their favor so
be sure to counter as needed. 

IANAL. This is how I've approached business and its worked very well. I've
done a good size gov contract using the method above with no problems. I've
only had 1 client I had to take to small claims. We did not have a contract
but I had witnesses and emails. I had a LOT of written communication with
them. It was a slam dunk. Even so here's what happened. After 6 months of
non-payment and repeated attempts to garner some payment w/o results I
filed a small claims case. That was April. Court date set for Late June. 1
week before case defendant filed for date change. New date was Sept.
Won my case. Defendant filed an appeal (30 days after judgement - the
deadline for filing an appeal). Date was sent for Nov. Again defendant
filed for date change. Moved to Dec. Went to *District* court and the case
did not get tried that day. Continued in Jan. Won that. Now turning it over
to my attorney to collect. 

If contracts are such a great business tool how come every day cases are
tried for breach of contract? 

I would suggest some good E&O Ins in any case. Contracts can be helpful but
you really need to look at your market and the $ involved. If you are
dealing with projects that can be handled in small claims often the cost of
a custom contract will push you out of there budget. I would not suggest a
contract template. You'll do better in small claims with a email/letter of
understanding, and other written communication. You probably create more
trouble by trying to make a template fit.

JMHO, FWIW, IANAL, I don't have a 7 line sig....

Good Day,


At 08:27 AM 1/30/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Keep in mind that in the business of intellectual property rights (and
>that's the business you are in whether you know it or not), legally
>appropriate contracts are *not* add-ons to your business, something you do
>*if* you have any money left over;  legally appropriate contracts *are*
>your business.  Without a thorough and valid contract, then what you have
>is nothing but an illusion.  It only *appears* you are in business but in
>reality, you are not since given a controversy between you and your client,
>you risk losing your rights and the fees that go along with those rights.
>Additionally, surely your time must be worth something and it is simply
>unclear the reason you would spend your valuable time trying,
>unsuccessfully, to draft complex legal documents when you could use that
>time to generate business for yourself.
Michael Ricker
Webmaster
Management Specialties
"The Web Site Specialist"
http://www.managementspecialties.com

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