The $200 lawyer review that saved me from a nightmare contract

I paid a local freelance attorney $200 to look over a standard web design contract and she found a non-compete clause buried in the fine print that would have locked me out of my whole industry for a year. Has anyone else found hidden clauses in so-called standard templates?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sage6d ago

Is it actually enforceable though or just scary language?

victorhernandez7d ago

but honestly a non-compete in a web design contract is kind of reasonable if you were working on their proprietary stuff. you paid $200 to find out something that was already right there in the contract, which is basically the point of reading the thing. maybe the real takeaway is that people should actually read what they sign instead of acting surprised when it says something they don't like.

zarag177d ago

Doesn't the real issue here go beyond reading contracts to whether these clauses actually hold up in court for a web designer? Non-competes usually require specific compensation to be enforceable, and a standard web design fee probably doesn't count. If the clause is legally shaky, then "you should have read it" is a pretty weak argument.