I Will Not Tell You Where To Get Free Forms Online

“Greg,” a prospective client might ask me, “Where can I find a free online form to create my contract/document/will?”

“I don’t recommend doing that,” I would likely respond.

“But isn’t the democratization of the law something to celebrate?” they might retort. “Why are you against progress?”

Just to be clear, I’m not against the public having access to affordable and useful legal information (what do you think this blog is, after all?) and I’m very much in favor of people with genuine financial limitations having SOMETHING rather than nothing. So in a pinch, if you can’t afford a lawyer, a template document can be a useful tool.

But it’s true that I don’t like free online forms and don’t trust them. And if you’re not in dire financial straits, I don’t recommend using them. Why?

1. You don’t know what’s in them. The legalese in these forms can be confusing and because of that, the form might contain language that isn’t applicable to your situation, or worse, is actively harmful to your interests. I’ve seen first hand how badly this can go… several years ago I had a client who used an online form to license his work to another party. But because he selected the wrong form, he accidentally ended up selling the rights to his work outright and wasn’t able to get them back. There’s a reason lawyers spend so much time and money on schooling and then years working for other attorneys… to build up the knowledge base and skills needed to understand how to read and write these documents.

2. They’re not written for your needs. While forms can sometimes be a useful jumping off point, they can fail to address issues that are unique to your situation. Not all documents are made equal and you may require specific language in yours that a form can’t anticipate. And if you intend to use a contract template over and over again, there may be differences between your own clients that necessitate changes between contracts. For example, you may require different payment terms for different clients because one has proven to pay timely and reliably and another has proven to be delinquent. A form is designed to be a one-size fits all approach that may not be appropriate for you.

3. They can’t anticipate what you don’t know to look for. Let’s be honest. You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s why you hire a professional anytime something bad happens with your car, your house, your lower back, etc. Using a form that can’t anticipate your knowledge level means you could be leaving money on the table you didn’t know you had a right to; it could leave out important clauses that protect your interests and include clauses that harm you; it could result in ambiguous terms that neither party can understand; it could force you into arbitration when you’d rather use the court system. You may end up worse than you started because you didn’t know what to look for.

4. They may not be legally valid in your state. While many contract provisions are valid no matter where you live, some states have very specific rules regarding contract construction or formalities that a form may not pick up on. For example, if you are drafting a will, some states may require you to have it notarized and attested while others don’t. Some states may permit a contract to be modified while other states may forbid it. Failing to check your state's specific language requirements for documents may render them legally invalid.

I understand that attorneys are expensive and I also know there’s a subset of people who just want to DIY everything, but the benefit to having an attorney draft your document is that you’ll be able side-step these pitfalls while also having your needs met in real time. So no, I won’t tell you where to find free form templates online. Partly because I want you to pay me to do it for you, but largely because I want you to get it done right.

When Is It Okay to Write a Bad Review of a Client?

If I had a dime for every time a client complained to me that a customer violated a contract, well thankfully I’d only have like 50 cents. But still, it does happen. And when it does the client sometimes asks me if it’s okay to write a bad review online. That’s when I hesitate.

Whenever possible, You should never badmouth a party in public at all… yes even one who acts in bad faith. But if you’re absolutely going to do it no matter what, you should definitely wait until you’ve recouped what you’re owed (or as much of it as you can) from them and acquired a written history of their bad faith actions. Even then I’m hesitant to advise it. I’m a big fan of killing them with kindness no matter how badly you’re treated, because if you’re ever involved in a litigation, all of your communications will come out in discovery; you don’t want a judge or jury thinking YOU’RE the asshole in this transaction.

Most people don’t write bad reviews when they’re in a good frame of mind. They’re upset - understandably so - but not necessarily thinking clearly about the long-term effects of their actions. So it’s really easy for a person who has been harmed and is mad about it to overstep and accidentally defame the offending party. And the last thing you want is to be sued for defamation when you’re the victim.

There’s a fine line between warning people of bad faith operators and defamation. Defamation is defined as a statement to at least one other party about a person designed to ruin that person’s reputation. Usually the statement must also be false, but that is not a requirement in every state. When the defamatory statement is spoken, it is called slander, when it is written or otherwise recorded, it is called libel, but no matter what form it takes, the effect is the same. 

Your intent in making the statement also matters, as well as the defamed party’s public status… if the party is a public figure (politician, celebrity, etc), for example, your statement must be made with malicious intent, while a statement against a private figure must only be made with negligence. It’s also worth noting that simple name-calling is generally not considered defamation and statements of opinion might also not be considered defamatory (depending on context, of course) since they are harder to prove.

Here are some examples:

“Don’t work with John Smith Productions. They purposely stole my idea and cut me out of the production without paying me!” This is most likely defamation if the statement is false because it asserts as fact that the production company stole your work (on purpose, no less).

“I think John Smith Productions used my copyright without asking me.” Because this is a statement of opinion, it is less likely to be considered defamatory, though it wouldn’t necessarily prevent the production company from suing you anyway, especially if the statement is untrue.

“John Smith Productions is filled with conniving thieves and John Smith is the worst of them all!” Whether or not this is factually true, because this statement is merely name calling and doesn’t allege actual wrongdoing, this would not be considered defamatory.

What I tell people who are determined to write a bad review online is this: divorce yourself as much as you can from emotion. Statements of fact that you can actually back up with evidence are best. And of course, make sure that whatever you say is TRUE. When in doubt, be kind and truthful. Just because you were treated badly doesn’t mean you have to become the bad guy too.

Superman Can Wait: My Personal Experiences With Not Getting Agreements In Writing

You know, I say "get everything in writing" so often on this blog that I feel like I should have it pre-engraved on my headstone. I may be a broken record about it, but that's only because I've had plenty of first-hand experiences where that information would've come in handy. Here's one such experience that proved so formative, it helped shape my eventual journey from film to the law.

In the summer of 2002, I was a freshly minted RISD grad working in the vault of a major post-production house in New York City. I was hoping that after a few months organizing shelves of film and tape, they would call me up to the big leagues so I could learn to be an assistant editor or color correctionist. It wasn't my dream, but it was proximate enough to my dream that I stuck it out. In late August, my friend Maureen from college called and told me about a job opportunity she knew I couldn't pass up. After graduation, Maureen moved back home to Orange County where she was picking up odd jobs in the film business. A friend of hers - who I'll call Jenny because I can't remember her actual name - had been an assistant editor on Brett Ratner's films, and because Ratner was about to direct the new Superman movie, Jenny was slated to work on it. According to Maureen, Jenny could get me a job as a production assistant on the film, but I had to get my ass to L.A. pronto, since production was ramping up. This meant leaving my steady job and steady girlfriend (who eventually forgave me for moving 3000 miles away and married me) and taking a hell of a risk. Other than Maureen, I didn't know anyone in California. I had no money, no connections, nowhere to stay. I was going out on a limb, and trusting to fate, God, the universe, whatever, that it wouldn't snap beneath me.

With Maureen's help, I called Jenny who put me in touch with the production company. The woman I spoke to there was very encouraging and though she couldn't guarantee I'd be hired, she assured me that once I got to Los Angeles, I could come in for a proper interview and, most likely, get myself a set PA job. A month later, I was in the City of Angels, ready to make my dream come true.

"A job as a production assistant?" you might ask. "That was your dream?" Well, yes. Certainly I had no illusions about where a PA's job was on the totem pole. I knew the majority of my job would be making coffee runs to the nearest Starbucks. But this was a chance to work on a Superman film. SUPERMAN! For those who don't know me, Superman is my jam, particularly Christopher Reeve's iteration. Not enough to name my kid Kal-El or anything, but growing up, he meant a lot to me. He represented the ideal of heroism and goodness in a world that seemed continually bereft of both. He was what I wanted to be. It didn't matter that the script Ratner was working from (written by J.J. Abrams) had leaked online and been universally lambasted. It didn't matter that Ratner had only one good film under his belt and was widely considered a hack. It only mattered that it was Superman and I would be on the same set as him. How could this not all work out?

Oh my friends, how I'd love to tell you the gambit paid off. And if life were more like a movie, it would have. But within weeks of landing in L.A., Ratner was off the project and it reentered development hell. And all of a sudden, I had to make a life for myself in a strange place with no resources. You could say I acted recklessly, that I was dumb. And you'd be right to say that. A smarter man might have waited for an official job offer from Warner Bros, something in writing that I could hold in my hand on that plane ride across the country. But I was young and ambitious and excited to get started before there was even something to get started on. I upended my life without a guarantee of employment, only the vague promise of it.

But do you know how many artists do the very same thing? Sure, most don't move across the country for it, but it's so common for artists to get excited and start working on something before the deal is written down that it can take up anywhere from 50% to 75% of my law practice. So when I tell you to get everything in writing, I say it not just because it's smart business, not just because I see my clients going through it, but because I've lived it and know what can happen if you don't. Getting all your deals in writing protects your interests and holds everyone accountable. It should be an invaluable tool in your arsenal. So learn from my mistakes. If the job is important enough, it can wait until everything is written down.