Hiring Contractors: Employment Agreements

5 points by c0w 12 years ago · 2 comments · 1 min read

I'm a huge fan of outsourcing (elance) and have been working with numerous contractors through them for more than a year. I've spent thousands of dollars and completed dozens of mini projects, and plan on continuing to use their contractors far into the future. However, not once have I had the contractor sign any formal employment agreement/contract. There's a part of me that's saying "c0w, you need to protect yourself. You need contracts!". To those of you who have expertise in this area: what clauses should be in this contract to protect me? In researching this question today I've come up with the following list that seems to be a good starting point:

--Standard employment clauses --Non-disclosure --Non-compete --IP and Trade Secrets --Forum to settle disputes --Non-Disparagement

What am I missing here? Does anyone know of any free sample contracts or templates I could use that are going to protect me and my interests?

I found a site called rocketlawyer.com and they have a number of sample agreements available for free. Has anyone seen these? What's the consensus on them?

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/secure/interview/questions.aspx?document=34044058&utm_source=1024&v=3#q1 https://www.rocketlawyer.com/secure/interview/questions.aspx?document=34044083&utm_source=1024&v=3#q1 https://www.rocketlawyer.com/secure/interview/questions.aspx?document=34044085&utm_source=1024&v=3#q1 https://www.rocketlawyer.com/secure/interview/questions.aspx?document=34044086&utm_source=1024&v=3#q1

Thanks, -c0w