TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> I am being asked to write the drafts of my company's
> legal documents. These documents run the gamut from
> the innocuous 'terms and conditions' of product use,
> to more mission-critical sales contracts and
> consulting agreements.
Maybe I'm overconfident, or perhaps its partly because I
don't live in the over-litigated US of A, but I'd have no
objection to accepting such a task. On my terms.
> My managers have been quite blunt about they need me
> to write these documents: they can't (or won't) afford
> to spend thousands of dollars for lawyers to write
> these documents from scratch.
>
> All of my instincts are telling me that I shouldn't be
> writing the drafts of any legal documents.
Right. However, that does not mean you cannot do something
useful here.
You should be documenting the company's requirements and
objectives in a way that management are comfortable with
(bonus! you get to be involved with senior management on
policy issues) and that saves the lawyers a lot of time
when they put it into legal language.
Management should review and approve what you write before
it goes to the lawyer.
> I have been reassured that a lawyer will review any
> document I write,
I'd ask for that in writing, as a reasonable request to
protect myself. If they won't put it in writing, refuse
the job.
> but there is no guarantee that the documents
> will be reviewed by the company's legal counsel. In
> fact, I suspect that anything I write will be
> immediately put into use.
Then I'd write something that would help a lawyer but
obviously could not just be used. Avoid legal language,
talk about your company's goals, not the legal methods
of achieving them, ...
Top-of-head example:
We need at least two different contracts for contractors.
One uses a daily rate for billable time. It specifies the
manager for whom the contractor will work and the project.
Invoices are to be submitted weekly and are payable...
Contractors may be terminated ...
The other contract type specifies specific deliverables
and ties invoicing to those deliverables. ...
Flesh those out and you could save the company thousands
in legal bills, and produce better contracts, without
much risk.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East,
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
