FAQ’s
General
What is the beta version of Contract Collective and how does it work?
We have launched Contract Collective in a beta version. During this beta period, instead of operating as a marketplace where document licenses are purchased and sold between users, we will operate as a shared forms library where the price of access is contributing at least two appropriate forms or other documents to the library for use by the other registered beta users. To apply to be a beta user, you must submit at least two documents for evaluation by us. If we determine the documents would make a meaningful contribution to the collective library (and you’re otherwise eligible to join under our Terms of Service), we will approve your registration and either submit your documents to the site or have you do so. You will then have access to the library and your approved documents will be available for free to all other registered users. During the beta period, any removal of your documents is subject to our discretion and will only be granted for good reason (e.g., there are credible claims that the documents infringe third party rights). Our current plan is to eventually transition from this beta version to a paid marketplace as described elsewhere in these FAQ’s, at which time you may offer the documents for a licensing fee (or for free) or take them down. However, this may change as we move forward. We will notify you in advance of a transition from this beta version at your contact information you’ve provided to us. See “Beta Version Terms” at the beginning of our Terms of Service for more details, including how to request registration.
Who is eligible to register for Contract Collective and why?
You must be an attorney who is or has been licensed to practice law in the United States in order to register and maintain an account with Contract Collective. We have this attorney requirement so that attorneys offering their documents feel more confident that the purchaser has or should have the sophistication to use the document appropriately, adapt it to their needs, and correct any issues or errors. A lay person might be inclined to simply print and use a document as-is to their detriment.
How do I become a registered user?
The registration process is simple. Just click “Register” and provide us with the information requested. This will include providing evidence of eligibility in the form of a bar or license number and state of licensure, an image or pdf of your business card or bar certificate, or similar evidence, and the web address of your linkedIN profile, law firm website, or page on your state’s bar directory. Once you submit this information, we will review your registration and once approved, you will have access to upload and offer documents as well as purchase and download others’ documents. Please note that your sale of documents will require that you link us to your Paypal account so that we may deliver your sale proceeds net of our fee.
Why do you ask for my LinkedIN or website information?
This information helps us to verify your eligibility to use Contract Collective.
For Buyers:
What are my use rights with respect to a document license I purchase?
The definitive terms and conditions governing your rights are found in our Terms of Service. In general, you are permitted to use and modify the document to service your clients and for your own professional use in the practice of law, but not to distribute, monetize, or exploit the document as a form unrelated to particular client matters.
What is your refund policy?
All sales are final and the purchase price is non-refundable including if a document you purchase is later withdrawn from offer due to infringement or other issues. Nevertheless, we may make exceptions to this no-refund policy in our sole and absolute discretion on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to make such a refund request, we recommend that you make it as quickly as possible following the sale as this will increase the likelihood of our granting your request.
Examples of circumstances where we are more likely to consider issuing a refund include where the digital file of the document is corrupted and we are unable to replace it with an uncorrupted file, a document description is materially deceptive or misleading, or we conclude that the quality of a document does not meet minimum standards and this was not evident in any available document preview or other pre-purchase information. In any refund exception, we reserve the right to issue the refund in the form of a credit toward other document purchases.
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
I found a form I believe is infringing on copyright. How do I report it?
You will find our copyright policy and instructions for reporting potential violations in our Terms of Service.
How do I cancel my account?
Just send an email to support@contractcollective.com and let us know you would like to inactivate your account.
For Sellers:
Why would I share my forms with other attorneys?
Contract Collective provides attorneys the opportunity to monetize their forms library and accumulated work product as licensing revenue, a revenue that, unlike much legal work, does not require the attorney’s ongoing effort. Most attorneys have many years of forms and work product that lie dormant in their files. We believe the revenue opportunity this presents far outweighs the likelihood that an attorney purchasing a license for your document would use the document in a way that would adversely impact your practice.
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
How do I upload a document?
When logged in, go to “My account” in the upper left corner and select “Submitted Documents”. You will see a button to submit a new document. Complete the form and click “Submit.” Remember that many documents cover similar areas. It is important to provide a meaningful description, including any unique aspects of your document, as well as a preview to help users evaluate your document. This helps prospective purchasers distinguish your document from similar ones. Descriptors might include certain features like “earn out” or “pro-buyer”. The preview should be a pdf of one or up to a few pages of the document depending on the document’s length sufficient to allow a user to gain a sense of the general drafting quality of the document.
What about third-party copyright interests in the document I am submitting?
Please refer to our Terms of Service for our official terms and conditions on copyright infringement and related matters. In general, we believe that the vast majority of forms have had too many hands in their making and are of too general a nature to result in viable copyright claims as a practical matter. That said, this is not always the case and copyright interests can arise in, for example, a legal article, a form provided by a legal publisher, or in a legal document where the author did personally create the form, particularly where they have produced something unique. See American Family Life Insurance of Columbus v. Assurant, Inc. (Case No. 1:05-CV-1462-BBM) for an example of this. In American Family, an insurance company successfully sued another based on the claim that the other company infringed their rights by adopting a unique insurance policy form that they had spent substantial resources creating. Also see contract drafting authority Ken Adams’ thoughts on the matter here. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to assess whether viable or legitimate third-party claims exist in the document you provide. If your document has particularly unique drafting or other features that you did not author or if it came from a legal publisher or has other indications of copyright interests that are not yours, then you should not submit the document to Contract Collective.
How do I price my document?
The best guidance we can give here is to consider how much you would be willing to pay for a similar document if you were on the other end of the purchase and to look at the pricing of similar documents on the site. Remember that we will be collecting a portion of your sale price as a fee for your use of Contract Collective.
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
What about sales tax?
The seller is responsible for all federal, state, or local taxes, including sales and use taxes, that apply to document purchase or sale transactions made through the website or that otherwise apply to users in using the website. Sales tax for online digital items vary by state and are not required in some states. We suggest you seek qualified advice and familiarize yourself with these regulations prior to conducting business on the site. The IRS has a useful web page with links to the state websites that provide information regarding doing business in that state:
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/state-links-1
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
Do I need to submit a W-9?
Possibly, depending on how much you sell. We do not have to collect a W-9 from everyone. To comply with IRS regulations, we collect this information and issue 1099-K forms to registered users who have had sales of more than $20,000 during the tax year. If it looks like you will be crossing this threshold, we will send you an email with an explanation and instructions on how to submit a W-9.
If you think you should be providing a W-9, but haven’t heard from us, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to investigate.
Regardless of whether you get a tax form from us or not, it's important to understand your tax reporting needs, and while Contract Collective cannot provide any tax advice, we strongly recommend that all our users who sell documents consult with a qualified tax professional to understand any tax obligations.
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
What happens if I don’t make $20,000 on this site during the tax year?
You will only receive a 1099-K if you had more than $20,000 in gross sales for the year. If you did not cross this sales threshold, you will not receive a 1099-K for the year even if you delivered a W-9 to us.
Regardless of the amount you earn listing items on this site, you should consult your tax advisor on how to report your income from the site.
NOTE: During our beta period, all documents will be at no charge, other than your submission of two satisfactory documents to the site.
What type of files and documents can I offer through Contract Collective?
Contract Collective is a marketplace where attorneys can offer their legal forms and templates and any other legal resources in document form (in certain electronic formats) that they believe other attorneys would find useful and be willing to purchase. This may include:
Please review the Terms of Service for a summary of prohibited content.
What is the value in creating a preview?
While it is not required, we strongly recommend creating a PDF preview of a portion of your document to accompany the description. This allows buyers to evaluate the content and feel confident that they are going to be presented with a document suitable to their needs. When determining whether to create a preview, consider the length of the document and your price. How much would you be willing to gamble on the document to buy it sight unseen? Is it a one-page document for $1.99 or a lengthy, complex document you are offering for $50 or more?
NOTE: During our beta period, this is not as necessary given that users may download and evaluate the entire document for free. However, it is still a good idea to submit a preview in preparation for the site’s transition to a marketplace.
Does my document need to be perfect to submit and offer it?
While it is preferable to have a quality document with no drafting or formatting errors or typos, you should not necessarily let such matters prevent you from submitting and offering the document. A purchaser will (or should) review the entire document and will likely have to make modifications in any event. Your hesitation to submit a document because of the time it would take to address every minor issue may prevent you from submitting a document that would be of substantial help to another user even with those minor issues. Having a document that broadly meets their needs may be well worth having to correct a few drafting errors. If you want to offer such a document (not wanting to spend the time to address such errors), but do not want it associated with your name, you can offer it anonymously.
I found a form I believe is infringing a copyright interest. How do I report it?
You will find our copyright policy and instructions for reporting alleged copyright violations in our Terms of Service.
What uses and disclosures of my Documents and other information does Contract Collective engage in that I might not expect?
We will use and share your Document and other material you submit to the site for the purposes you would expect, such as using it to operate the site and provide the site services to our users, to comply with law, to enforce our rights, and to troubleshoot, protect, and generally improve the site and our service. We will share it with our outside service providers for these purposes, such as with the hosting providers we use for the site.
We also see a potential opportunity to develop business and research intelligence from information and materials collected through the site. For example, particularly, if the database of documents becomes significant, there could be an opportunity to analyze the database to gain insights into how agreements are structured or, for example, to extract, compile, and analyze certain provisions. These uses would be principally on an aggregated basis, although they might involve reproduction of select provisions of documents for analysis, comparison, or other uses. They would not involve simple reproduction and distribution of documents in substantially the form submitted to the site or use that publicly identified the user who submitted the document. We expect these activities could comprise a new revenue stream for us and could be made available for academic or research purposes (in cooperation with third parties) or both. Accordingly, we have granted ourselves rights in the documents in support of these potential future activities. See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for further details. If you have any questions about this, you can contact us at support@contractcollective.com.