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I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my post
about ethics and morals in documentation. It was a
extremely interesting discussion.
I have another, potentially more serious, situation on
my hands and this time I need advice.
I am being asked to write the drafts of my company's
legal documents. These documents run the gamut from
the innocuous 'terms and conditions' of product use,
to more mission-critical sales contracts and
consulting agreements.
My managers have been quite blunt about they need me
to write these documents: they can't (or won't) afford
to spend thousands of dollars for lawyers to write
these documents from scratch.
All of my instincts are telling me that I shouldn't be
writing the drafts of any legal documents. I have been
reassured that a lawyer will review any document I
write, but there is no guarantee that the documents
will be reviewed by the company's legal counsel. In
fact, I suspect that anything I write will be
immediately put into use.
For those of you with experience in this area - What
are the legal ramifications for the author of a legal
document if the author makes a mistake? Is this a task
that can legitimately be assigned to a technical
writer with no business or legal experience? If not,
how would you handle such a situation (short of
leaving the company)?
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