Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ofcourse there is; multiple times have I gotten documents via-via that were identical to docs I received before and the lawyers billed hours for that copy/paste work making it sound, like your wife, that it is custom and a lot of work. It can be Ofcourse, but most, even complex company documents I have signed (and that's 100s) are indeed boilerplate and the lawyers are scammers trying to bill hours for 'writing' them…
But you're just proving my point: if 95% is boilerplate, 5% is not. Plus you have to consider the circumstances. The same exact document might have vastly different ramifications depending on what else is involved - the work, product, other parties, etc. I'm very happy for folks who haven't run into issues by not using a lawyer. But having had documents reviewed and realizing that things are pretty much never what th…
Disclaimer here is that I am not from the US and as I understand legal things are different there: many things were you get sued over in the Netherlands where the contracts could be an issue in the US, are basically laughed out of court here in NL. Anecdotal; someone tried to sue us for damages because there was a misspelling in a contract with him. The judge told him literally to not waste his time as the intention was clear. Also indirect damages are not taken very seriously here (and should be nowhere imho, but I hear they are in the US).
So I only made my comment based on my experience in NL, DE, HK, ES and UK and there I mostly saw copy/paste work while still being billed hours for that non-effort.