A contract or agreement records the arrangements between two or more parties. Broadly speaking, it concerns the rights and obligations of both parties.
What is important to include in a contract depends heavily on the type of contract and what the parties have agreed upon mutually. For an employer, it is very important, for example, to include the employee's working hours in the contract, and for a salesperson, it is very important to general terms and conditions include a clause regarding liability
Copying and pasting contracts is easy and free. You search on Google, Bing, or another search engine for contracts that you think are most applicable to your situation. You quickly start copying. But are you aware of what these provisions actually entail? And what are the consequences if you have these provisions included in your contract? And haven't you accidentally copied someone else's name?
If your copy-and-paste contract contains everything you agreed upon with the other party, there is, in principle, no problem. Unfortunately, in practice, this is usually not the case. The danger is that there may also be provisions included that are not always advantageous to you. You run unnecessary risks for which you are not properly covered legally.
In principle, you and the other party make agreements that you both agree to. Suppose you have agreed that you will provide financial services worth €500 monthly and that the other party will pay the invoice on the 25th of each month. For this agreement, you have adopted a clause from another contract stating that you will provide a one-off legal service worth €500 and that the invoice will be transferred on the 25th of the month. You have now both signed an agreement that you do not support.
With copy-pasting, there is a risk that you will not protect yourself against the risks associated with collaborating with the counterparty. You might think you are covered for damage caused by water. However, by copy-pasting, you overlooked the fact that your agreement contains no provisions regarding damages whatsoever. This means that you can now liable by the counterparty for any form of damage, something you absolutely do not want.
Another risk of copy-and-paste is that you include provisions that do not apply to your situation. Suppose you own a company and an employee invokes a provision. He claims he is entitled to a bonus of 20% of his monthly salary. You have no idea what the employee is talking about and decide to carefully review the agreement. You see that the employee is indeed entitled to the bonus. Now you are obliged to pay it out, even though you had not anticipated this.
In addition, you run the risk of including clauses that conflict with the law. For example, you may not include a clause in which you indemnify yourself for damage you have caused to a third party, while the consumer is required to bear the cost of this damage.
Avoid shooting yourself in the foot with copy-and-paste contracts and seek legal advice when drafting your contract.
