House in Progress Diary

Well, I see a couple of problems with it.

It's good that you have these docs up so that you can have something to START from, without hiring a lawyer (because lawyers have sample docs too, which they customize for each client), but I don't know if most people will just use them as a guide or try to use them off the rack.

Laws vary from state to state, so you might be agreeing to something which is legal in your neighboring state, but not legal in yours. If that's the case, will the judge throw out that bad clause and enforce the rest of the contract? Or say that the whole contract is illegal?

If you don't want to hire a lawyer, I think you're better off paying $20 or so to get a model lease or whatever from the local bar association, or local realtor group, which is probably neutral to both parties and legal.

Also, they seem to have a lot of different sample contracts on there and I see a pretty big difference between signing a one page lease that you found on the internet without consulting a lawyer, and signing a 40 page LLC agreement.

And if you buy a model contract from the local bar association or realtor group, at least you know that the people who drafted it are competent. How do you know who uploaded these contracts? It could've been drafted by someone who doesn't know what they are doing (not me, but some other guy who doesn't know what he's doing). Jus' sayin'

Nolo does the same thing, but maybe with a little more oversight & background. The thing is many legal agreements are from a (surprisingly simple)standard template and you can save yourself a ton by using them and having an attorney review the finish product (instead of paying them to draft it). I bought both of my houses and sold my last house using a basic purchase agreement template w/ an Addendum for anything funky. I paid an attorney to spend 15 minutes to review the final form. If you can trust the source, I personally think templates are a nice resource.

Here are my long-winded thoughts. With respect to the legal document posted on the site, I agree with HIN's comments. The quality and enforceability of a particular document may not be apparent to a non-lawyer or even many lawyers depending upon their areas of expertise. I completely understand if someone cannot or does not want to spend money on attorneys’ fees (I worked at a larger regional firm before moving in house and I certainly wouldn’t have paid my hourly rate). In that case, I always strongly suggest using your state’s bar association or statutory forms. They are often available for free or minimal cost and have been prepared by committees of attorneys specializing in the relevant area of law in your state.

As for drafting an agreement yourself and having an attorney review it, you may save money going that route if you use a bar association or statutory form. However, I suspect a number of attorneys will not do cursory reviews without additional time to discuss it with you to determine whether the form needs to address additional issues or is even appropriate for your particular situation (even the smallest malpractice claim will wipe out 15 minutes of billable time). It may also be false economy on the part of the client; a quick review will only allow an attorney to check if you have filled out the form correctly, not determine whether it is suited to your needs or will adequately protect you. Even if an attorney is willing to do a such a review, my experience has been that it usually takes me less time to draft an agreement (starting with my form) than to review and revise an agreement prepared by another attorney, not to mention what may be a less than artfully-drafted document downloaded from the Internet. (One of my former estate planning colleagues jokingly encourages clients to draft their own wills because he makes a lot more money off their estate when they are contested in probate.) I’m not suggesting that every document needs to be drafted and reviewed by an attorney (far from it), just that everyone should be aware of the issues involved and make an educated decision.

As with all file sharing, another issue to consider is that some of these forms may be copyrighted or otherwise proprietary. Serious threats may be unlikely, but some legal form companies and professional associations may not look kindly upon their forms being made freely available.

That being said, these types of sites can be enormously helpful in allowing everyone to become more familiar with various types of legal documents. If nothing else, it can help people become more educated and savvy consumers of legal services.

By the way, I really enjoy your blog. But I'm a sucker for helpful, well-written and occasionally snarky sites.