Exam “F
Test your knowledge of equine law. by Attorney Krysia Nelson
Free Forms: Friend or Foe?
orm” contracts can be acquired at lit- tle or no expense on the internet. But are free (or cheap) generic forms even
worth the time it takes to download them? The short answer is “no.” I am certain that at some point in my career
I have probably said something to the effect of “something in writing is better than nothing in writing.” But this statement should not be taken as my sanctioning the use of a generic form rather than paying an attorney to draft a contract customized to your needs and the transaction at hand. Let me give you an example. Recently, a cli-
ent contacted me to draft a separation agree- ment between the client and an employee. I obtained the necessary information from the client, including details about the employee’s age, length of employment term, and the cir- cumstances surrounding the termination deci- sion. I asked follow up questions and received follow up answers. I drafted the agreement. Shortly thereafter, the client asked me to send him the agreement as a fillable pdf so that he could use it again for the next employee he fired. I refused. Why did I refuse? Because I know more about
the law than my client and there were provisions I put in the first agreement that might not be applicable to every situation. For example, the employee’s age is important. In this situation the employee was in his twenties, but if the em- ployee had been an “older” worker then I would have put in special language to protect my client from an age discrimination claim. Here’s another example. I had a client who
thought my three-page horse boarding con- tract was “too long.” Something the client didn’t share with me was that it was important to him that his boarding contract be no longer than the front and back of a letter sized piece of paper. To make my contract “fit” his pagina- tion requirements, he took it upon himself to
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delete provisions that he thought “weren’t that important.” Fast forward a few years and that same client calls me to complain about a dead-beat boarder. I listened carefully to the scenario as my client explained it and then cheerfully opined that because of the boarding contract, we had everything covered. Much to my dismay, it wasn’t until my client sent me a copy of the contract the boarder had signed that I saw how much damage had been done to the masterpiece I had originally drafted. The client had inadvertently deleted just about ev- ery provision that would have been useful to an efficient and inexpensive self-help solution to a common problem. Yes, it’s true that after decades of practicing
law I have a “bank” of contracts and that it is rare for me to draft any contract entirely from scratch—I am almost always starting with some kind of a template and referencing other similar contracts I have done for other clients. But it is my professional expertise that guides my draft- ing of a contract when I am looking at other documents and deciding what I need to add or delete to make the contract suitable for my cli- ent’s current needs. Someone who lacks a legal education usually cannot appreciate these nuances to make even a rational guess about what should or should not be added or deleted. When someone is selling goods or services, a written contract serves two primary purpos-
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