We know that entrepreneurs and small businesses tend to copy and paste contracts and other Legal documents because Lawyers are expensive and are hardly worth the hype. But copying and pasting a contract could ruin you and your business. If you’re serious out building a sustainable venture you must avoid this.
Some of the problems that comes into play when you copy and paste include;
You are probably copying legal documents from other legal jurisdictions (countries). The applicable law amongst countries differ and if you use clauses that are not in line with the law of your jurisdiction then it won’t be legally binding.
Interpretation of the document becomes difficult. The point of a contract is to have a legal and binding document and likewise to be able to interpret this document correctly in order to enforce it when the need arises. As contractual situations differ you’re likely using a contract written to favour the other party. Interpretation would be difficult.
Your contract is going to be largely inconsistent. If the terms of your contract are inconsistent then you’ve created LOOPHOLES. To fix the loopholes you would have to take into consideration other correspondence like emails, documents etc. to prove what the agreement was. And then there was no point of taking the time to copy and paste in the first place.
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish…. using a contract that is not legally binding is probably going to result in you losing your contractual claim, which was supposed to be clean cut. If you have to prove the contents of your contract because it is, well all of the above points, then you might be saving pennies now, but when it matters most it is going to cost you pounds to resolve your claim in court.
It usually also doesn’t look too professional either. Again, one of the reasons you are getting a contract is because you are building a sustainable business and you want to do business professionally. If a contract is copied and pasted it also doesn’t look professional if the alignment is not perfect or spacing and numbering not correct.
The moral of the story is to make sure you use Industry Specific Contracts, drafted by a business savvy Lawyer.