What's the best way to get a legit TOS that will hold up?
We're looking for a TOS. We have some options, but I want to make sure it's done right.
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Terms of Service for what? What exactly are your concerns? What does "done right" mean to you? – Bneely 12 years ago
3 Answers
What's the best way to get a legit TOS that will hold up?Pay a competent attorney that has experience in your industry to craft one for you.
Your other options are:
- Download a free template from the internet and modify it yourself.
- Pay a "cookie-cutter" service a small fee to generate one for you. (I'm referring to the legalzoom.com business model, although I don't think legalzoom.com does TOS.)
However, neither of these options will be "the best way to get a legit TOS that will hold up".
I just wrote a blog post about this: http://blog.docracy.com/post/16130188600/its-ok-if-you-copied-your-terms-of-service There are a lot of tips from a lawyer on "DIY TOS" practices. The summary would be:
- if you are launching a new, complicated, high-risk service, hire a lawyer for custom TOS
- if you are doing a blog or a simple e-commerce site, use a good standard and tweak it
- if you are somewhere in the middle, well, read the post and all the links!
The best way is to hire a lawyer to write it for you.
The most economical way is to look at a bunch of ToS's used by other companies who do similar things as you. Identify the parts that are most relevant to your company and rewrite them to avoid any possible copyright issues.
