Kyle Mitchell is a lawyer that can program, and has done a ton of open source work on legal docs: https://projects.kemitchell.com/
For example, here are his employment/hiring docs: https://squareoneforms.com/
Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
11–20 of 81 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#12Nobody suggesting NoLo?
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#13For those not familiar: Common Paper https://commonpaper.com/standards/ seems to have the best free standard docs. Here's the post where they describe it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36043944 here's another one: https://www.avodocs.com/
Thanks for the mention and kind words! I’m one of the cofounders of Common Paper, happy to answer any questions.
Our docs are free, released under creative comments, have been downloaded more than 17,000 times and used to close millions of dollars worth of deals.
If you’re not sure what kind of contract you need, this blog post might help:
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#14Free legal documents are worth what you pay for them.
This actually depends. If you need something specific, tailored to your needs and operational niche, then obviously you can not forego a visit to a lawyer. However, for some documents, a reputable template is more than enough. (As even lawyers rarely draft "bespoke" documents for every client and happen to use a templated text more often than not).
It is definitely possible. But it is not always trivial to know which solution you need without the advice of a lawyer. Lawyers use templates a lot, but they also know which templates work in which scenarios and in which jurisdictions.
Personally I'd be more comfortable using templates on my own for generic business documents, and less comfortable using them for areas of the law that vary greatly by state, like landlord/tenant law, or employment law.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#15Free legal documents are worth what you pay for them.
This actually depends. If you need something specific, tailored to your needs and operational niche, then obviously you can not forego a visit to a lawyer. However, for some documents, a reputable template is more than enough. (As even lawyers rarely draft "bespoke" documents for every client and happen to use a templated text more often than not).
You have a point, but it's important to note that the template needs to be local to you. Laws aren't global, what is an appropriate T&C for a service hosted in USA won't be okay for a service hosted in UK or Singapore, and even within USA differences in state laws sometimes are critical, so you need to ensure that you're not getting a template aimed at somewhere else.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#17Free legal documents are worth what you pay for them.
This actually depends. If you need something specific, tailored to your needs and operational niche, then obviously you can not forego a visit to a lawyer. However, for some documents, a reputable template is more than enough. (As even lawyers rarely draft "bespoke" documents for every client and happen to use a templated text more often than not).
Even when I've ended up needing a lawyer (albeit for private legal transactions like estate planning) going through the process of finding a template, customizing it to what I wanted, and thinking through as much as I could was invaluable. The subject matter can be complex and lawyers are expensive, paid by time, and (in my experience) have a habit of bulldozing through explanations to clients; the more prep you've done ahead of time the more value you can get out of your lawyer time (e.g. by knowing what questions to ask and having a clear picture of the issues at hand).
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#18Do any of these resources target multiple different countries? The requirements for these kinds of documents tend to vary wildly, even between countries with similar legal traditions in the Anglosphere.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#19In terms of a privacy policy, the UK ICO has a good starting point for UK based organisations: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/advice-for-small-organi...
It covers the basics of GDPR compliance.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?
#20Do any of these resources target multiple different countries? The requirements for these kinds of documents tend to vary wildly, even between countries with similar legal traditions in the Anglosphere.
I had edited/signed a lot of documents for my service company, other companies I consulted with, and quite a few of the Startups I was part of. The idea is to keep the generic ones as possible and then look for the part particular to the country’s legalities.
For instance, for NDA, I will see that “in the case of dispute, the legal court will be this city/country.” I just found a template that can be adapted - https://www.onenda.org
I have done this for MSA (Master Service Agreement) and a lot of Statment of Work (SOW) for projects. However, for employment and contracts, I let the lawyers handle it.
Once you are big, growing, and important enough, you are not asking her on HackerNews; you talk to your lawyers. Before that, most agreements are good to stay afloat till the next stage.