techcrunch.com — Docstoc.com, Youtube for Professional Documents, came out of private beta this morning. They already have thousands of free legal and business documents users can preview and download. And they’re giving away iPod Touches for their launch.
Oct 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
turboproOct 30, 2007
who will in turn buy Fedex/kinkos
joshuaerOct 30, 2007
search the source code for php and you will see that is shows up allot!!
stryder81Oct 30, 2007
I looked at this site briefly and searched some that I would need down the line and this site already to me kicks f-in ass. Alot of people are going to save a ton of money on these forms/contracts etc.
omgiamthemanOct 31, 2007
hahah, you got me, but would you rather your lawyer's handle be "OMGILOSEANDCRY"?
dgulbranNov 5, 2007
I am not a lawyer... I'm a law student (less than a year to go, whoo hoo!) and I think sites like this are great.First, they provide a resource so people can see what some of these documents look like *before* they go to a lawyer. The more you know about what you need your document to accomplish, the less you're going to spend on explaining it to a lawyer...Second, there are some lawyers--I know, not many--who actually don't gouge clients. I've had cases in the past where I've drafted a contract, and then just paid a lawyer a reasonable fee to tweak it and ensure it complied with the law in a specific jurisdiction. It can save a ton of money, versus having something custom drafted from scratch.That said, of course if you just download docs from the site and "fill in the blanks" you are an idiot. As others have mentioned, some provisions might be void in some jurisdictions... or case law might have changed the way a provision is interpreted by the courts, etc. Worse yet, some document (wills are a very good example) sometimes have really arcane procedural requirements that *must* be followed when they are executed, or they are subject to all kinds of challenges in court. The last thing you want is a DIY legal document downloaded from a website to come back and bite yer butt. So yeah--lawyers do still have value, even with sites like this.That said, knowledge is good. I think having access to these documents can help people learn more for themselves, and in my mind, that's not a bad thing. If anything, it lets lawyers provide a higher level of service, for less money overall, and everyone wins.