Do-it-yourself legal sites drive me crazy. I came across a DIY legal site called Negonation this week (yeah, OK, it’s in Brazil, but the principle is the same. It touts a “get-your-contract-off-this-site-and-avoid-legal-fees” service. It claims that “its contracts are legally enforceable in the offline world, even if the parties are in different countries. That’s quite a bold claim.
Online sites don’t necessarily empower the lawyer in all of us. What they do is delude many people into thinking that they have an “inner lawyer.” Not everyone does, and that’s okay. I don’t have an “inner doctor”– if I have a medical need (even a regular check-up), I get help. I don’t have an “inner accountant”–I make sure that I have one on call who can provide guidance as to how I should handle my financial statements and taxes. I am who I am: anal, cautious, and detail-oriented (among other things). That makes me perfectly suited to being a lawyer. I am not cut out for many other professions, and that suits me just fine. I’ll leave those areas of specialty to the experts.
What’s dangerous about these sites is the false sense of security that entrepreneurs get from taking legal agreements from the Internet, without having the background or training to fairly evaluate whether what’s in the agreement is in their best interests, or whether there are other things that should be in the agreement that aren’t. There’s no one affiliated with the sites who will give you the legal advice about your specific situation–they’re just selling you a product (the agreement). Take it or leave it. They don’t take your own needs into account when creating the agreement– it’s an off-the-shelf product.
It would be like walking into Bloomingdales and buying a suit without looking at the size. You know you need a one, but if it doesn’t fit properly, you could end up spending more for alterations than you paid for the suit. Getting the right legal protections in place for your company isn’t just a matter of one-size-fits-all merchandise.
Lawyers provide a hybrid: product and service. And it’s the service you receive that ensures that the product truly meets your needs. For more guidance, see my article “What You Should Know Before Copying Contracts from the Internet.”
This is hilarious.
Negonation is not a Brazilian company in the first place. Look at your own negonation link at the top of this page: “Negonation, a Spanish company…”
I’ve been following this project for a while and I don’t think they want to âget-your-contract-off-this-site-and-avoid-legal-feesâ? as you are saying.
If you really get into it and investigate a little you will find that it is a huge tool for lawyers.
The templates are there just to help you to write a contract and not for you to use them irresponsibly.
Imagine if you could just sign a contract over the internet and not sending a signed copy of a contract and wait for your copy to be sent back signedâ¦
Imagine negotiating clauses over the internetâ¦
I think this is Tractis.
I guess you’re a lawyer so it’s in your interests to slam this Spanish startup but for the rest of us who are sick of being ripped off by unscrupulous and incompetent lawyers its a boon. Especially if its a fairly staright-forward contract you’re after. Have you checked out their site? There’s a link here – Kill All the Lawyers