Background

Hi, I'm Martin. Here's some background about me and what I do:

IAMAL, BIAMNYL: I'm a lawyer, but I'm not YOUR lawyer, so if you need legal advice about your specific legal situation, please make sure you consult YOUR lawyer.

Why have a contract with your client?

ensure alignment: agreement on the work to be done and the price to be paid
articulate the plan for the work (and payment for the work)
good client relationships: professional appearance
avoid misunderstandings and disputes
protection in case of a dispute

What's a contract - spectrum of informal to formal

a contract can be verbal, in an email or in a signed document
something in writing is better than something verbal

clarity about what is to be done, by when and for what price

something more detailed (in writing) is better than something cursory:

avoids people walking away with different understandings & (mis)conceptions

relationships are important, and may provide context and support for less detailed contracts, but...

relying on those alone may leave room for later misunderstandings

Written contract - key points

KEY: at the very least, write out and get agreement on the main points:

work to be done
timeline
price
payments

getting those points down and agreed on is far more important than getting the legalese language down

Price and payment

fixed fee, hourly, other
deposits (esp. for fixed fee work):

50% for small contracts (say, less than $5-10k)
33 1/3%, 33 1/3%, 33 1/3% for larger contracts
variations depending on type of work and size of contract
holdback of 10-15% in software dev contracts, especially large ones - until full acceptance

Intellectual property issues

TESTIMONIALS:

"Martin clarified a few issues for me, including, when I, as a designer, ought to write a single project-spanning contract as opposed to a preliminary contract to determine project scope and one to cover the actual work as out lined in the result ing scope document. Which is as important as it sounds. I’ve used one of LexPublica’s contracts before, and I plan to continue to do so in future. One point he did emphasize: the most important part of such an agreement is a good explanation of the actual work to be undertaken. It turns out that, “I’ll have one website, please” can mean somewhat different things to different people. Who knew?"