> Joel talks about this on the Stackoverflow podcast when they discuss using a lawyer to review the FogCreek office rental agreement.
This is not a rental contract, that the ability of 100 (?) employees to their job rests on. If Joel gets to the Fog Creek office one morning and finds the locks changed, he looses thousands of dollars a day - and not just his own money, that's money that he already owes in wages and so on. Absolutely, get a lawyer.
These two guys are doing some contracting on the side. There are no investments and no liabilities. Their worst case scenario is walking away, not talking to each other, maybe disputing a few $1000. Doing ten rounds with a lawyer (there's really no boiler contract that can cover every conflict two friends working together might encounter) easily costs that, AND then you'll still have to go to court to enforce the contract.
Spend an afternoon writing down a page of bullet points of the rules that should govern this cooperation.
> You should have a lawyer look at most contracts you sign.
No, you should familiarize yourself with basic contract law and be able to estimate the worst case scenario, and decide if that's a risk you want to take.
> These two guys are doing some contracting on the side. There are no investments and no liabilities. Their worst case scenario is walking away, not talking to each other, maybe disputing a few $1000. Doing ten rounds with a lawyer (there's really no boiler contract that can cover every conflict two friends working together might encounter) easily costs that, AND then you'll still have to go to court to enforce the contract.
Well then we disagree. This contract would require about 2 hours from a good lawyer. At least when I entered in a similar partnership with a friend that's what we spent.
I'm more thorough/cautious than you. All that means is that you and I are unlikely to do business with each other:)
This is not a rental contract, that the ability of 100 (?) employees to their job rests on. If Joel gets to the Fog Creek office one morning and finds the locks changed, he looses thousands of dollars a day - and not just his own money, that's money that he already owes in wages and so on. Absolutely, get a lawyer.
These two guys are doing some contracting on the side. There are no investments and no liabilities. Their worst case scenario is walking away, not talking to each other, maybe disputing a few $1000. Doing ten rounds with a lawyer (there's really no boiler contract that can cover every conflict two friends working together might encounter) easily costs that, AND then you'll still have to go to court to enforce the contract.
Spend an afternoon writing down a page of bullet points of the rules that should govern this cooperation.
> You should have a lawyer look at most contracts you sign.
No, you should familiarize yourself with basic contract law and be able to estimate the worst case scenario, and decide if that's a risk you want to take.