Hello.

Does anyone know any good resources to write our own terms of service?

Thanks.

A lawyer?

If you want to write them yourself, think carefully what you don't want to allow on your servers etc., how you want to deal with refunds, and related stuff. Then writing your own shouldn't be too hard...

Hello.

Hehe, yes a lawyer. But I am only starting, and I think the costs would be too great.

Thanks for those points. Have written them down.

Hmmmm.

Thanks.

It doesn't matter if your starting or not. The cost of a lawyer is always to great :)

Originally posted by netsolutions
It doesn't matter if your starting or not. The cost of a lawyer is always to great :)

While I agree that lawyers are expensive, I strongly encourage you to get one for your Terms of Service. In fact, find a good attorney with in-depth knowledge of the Internet and, preferably, some knowledge of the industry, and put them on retainer. Lawyers are expensive, it's true, but lawsuits are a whole lot more expensive.

If you want to save some money on your Terms of Service, go ahead and put them together yourself. Do your own research, figure out what clauses you'll need, and write the document yourself. Once you've done that, then take it to your lawyer to review and re-write it.

You'll spend a lot less in legal fees than having the lawyer write the TOS from scratch, but by having the lawyer review it you'll make sure your TOS is legal - that's absolutely vital.

When it comes to the law, the judges and the courts are very unforgiving when it comes to people who try to do things themselves. A good, knowledgable lawyer is worth every dime if he/she can keep you out of court.

Good luck,

Jason

our lawyer charged us $45 usd to write up a tos and legal statement. i think thats pretty darn cheap

Jason's point is excellent but I will say that most everything should be a cost-benefit approach and there are many times when it simply isn't worth it to involve a lawyer, or any professional for that matter. However, you need to define what "it" is -- are you running a simple hobbyist site with a forum and a few hundred visitors a day? Perhaps any simple free TOS that you see and can modify may do. However, is this your business and livelihood? Do you have high traffic? Do you collect any information from visitors? Do you use or provide any goods or services through your web site? If the answer to any of those questions is "yes", you should think about getting a lawyer, and I mean someone who knows what they are doing, to assist you. You are the client -- make reference in the conversation to some technical issues and see whether the atty is flubbing... too many I know grab a copy out of a book and sell it to you and know diddly. Your lawyer should be someone who can give you an evaluation of your web site and business and what you may want to do.

FYI, I'm an attorney and amateur programmer, formerly legal counsel and dir. of business affairs for a large Internet co., now building my site and buisness, thelaw.com. I've seen more horror stories than you can imagine with companies that decided to cut corners for their business by skipping the legal process. They got nailed when the going got tough and someone was responsible to pay. The danger is that you don't see why it's so valuable at the beginning stages and it's apparent once you encounter problems... and then you learn the lesson. It's easier to spot the immediate risks involved in buying a server with substandard components.

Feel free to ask questions here and I'll answer them if they are not too complex.

Regards,

Slinky aka Michael

Originally posted by MarcD
our lawyer charged us $45 usd to write up a tos and legal statement. i think thats pretty darn cheap

Interested ... Can you give me the contact # of your lawyer? Or do I need to find lawyer in my state (CT)?

cheers,
:beer: