31–38 of 38 posts
' Use your lawyer efficiently to avoid wasting money ' would be a better fitting title. The comments that have been posted so far lead me to believe no one actually read the full post. He's not trying to tell people lawyers are all a waste of money.
I'm cringing in anticipation of the downvoting, but I can't help myself here: this is TERRIBLE advice. Absolutely egregiously awful. The consultation of a good (that qualifier is important) attorney is worth every single penny. He/she will save you from making terrible mistakes like adopting the wrong corporate form, creating contracts that don't protect you and expose you to liability, signing off on contracts that…
Perhaps I'm missing something (I've never lived in lawsuit happy US), but I've relied on basic human decency all my life and it has turned out fine for me. I think there is a time for lawyers, but it's not when you are building your first prototype. You just can't afford to throw money at problems that don't exist yet.
This may work if you're starting out by yourself, but as soon as you involve another person you have to have contracts. Too many people I know have lost their best friends over relying on decency. When money is involved spell it out multiple times in a contract and have it reviewed. Removing any confusion early on will prevent huge headaches later.
It is like saying that it is a waste of money to hire an electrician to rewire your house. There is enough free information on the internet. Is there? Sure. But your lack of experience and knowledge on the topic could still lead you to electrocuting yourself. Similarly, so could hiring a bad electrician. But the safer bet is with the man whose trade is in working with electric and wiring. And when financial liability…
What about, say, car maintenance/repair? Plenty of hackerly types work on their own cars, despite the fact that a mistake could potentially be fatal, and there are professionals who specialize in the field.
I knocked the passenger side mirror off of my car on a pole. $30 and some time later, I had a new mirror installed.
Conversely, I had a power window motor burn out and seize up while the window was going down. I was able to get the door panel off, but all the bolts to remove the motor/window assembly were on the inside of the door. I had the directions and the knowledge to continue to remove the door and remove the motor, but I did not feel capable and I didn't really have the tools to properly proceed. Failure meant a bunch of broken glass in my drive way, or worse my car would only have three doors. So I took it to a mechanic and he fixed it in an afternoon.
To reapply all of this to the topic: some legal stuff you can handle if you have the knowledge and feel equipped to move forward. Privacy policies are a good example, as would be government regulations like CAN-SPAM, which are pretty well documented and explained. But as matters of legality grow in scope: articles of incorporation, anything tax related, or something like the DMCA, I personally would not continue without legal council.
Recommendations? That'll only work so far.
Price? Indirect indicator.
If I don't know much about the relevant law myself, then how would I know if he's any good? If I have to take the time to educate myself, then again I'll be doing his work.
This sort of legal stuff like setting up a company isn't exactly rocket science; it's a form of administration practiced against commonly known rules and the idea is not to deviate too much from what everyone else is doing to play safe. It's something that could, probably for 90% of cases, be done by some sort of a Create Company wizard tool that yields legally sensible outcomes. There are only so many legally relevant configurations of a new startup.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He said a good lawyer, not an average one. If one cannot tell the difference when choosing between a good and an average (or worse) attorney, then there is very little chance that they will do an adequate job with self-research, either.
What's the difference in cost between learning to discriminate between good lawyers and bad lawyers, and learning to avoid egregious legal errors on your own?
I'm cringing in anticipation of the downvoting, but I can't help myself here: this is TERRIBLE advice. Absolutely egregiously awful. The consultation of a good (that qualifier is important) attorney is worth every single penny. He/she will save you from making terrible mistakes like adopting the wrong corporate form, creating contracts that don't protect you and expose you to liability, signing off on contracts that…
Aren't you assuming that the average lawyer will, in fact, give better advice than can be gleaned through self-research? It's not inconceivable that for a number of routine things, the average advice is not likely to be any better (and possibly worse) than you'd get by reading a standard introductory text on the subject, and using one of the standard boilerplate contracts, after having read and understood standard ad…
Long story short: the average lawyer you'd hire is one who knows a fair bit about the subject matter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps I'm missing something (I've never lived in lawsuit happy US), but I've relied on basic human decency all my life and it has turned out fine for me. I think there is a time for lawyers, but it's not when you are building your first prototype. You just can't afford to throw money at problems that don't exist yet.
but I've relied on basic human decency all my life and it has turned out fine for me. This may work if you're starting out by yourself, but as soon as you involve another person you have to have contracts. Too many people I know have lost their best friends over relying on decency. When money is involved spell it out multiple times in a contract and have it reviewed. Removing any confusion early on will prevent huge…
Lawyers will usually adopt a better safe than sorry attitude. At a startup, this might not be exactly what you want.
Second, great laywers are just like great programmers, not that easy to find and qualify.