California courts may refuse to enforce non-disclosure agreements that are overly broad or vague in their terms. NDAs should have a clear description of the purpose, parties, and duration they cover.
If you need an NDA, looking at templates online isn't a bad place to start, but ideally you should work with a lawyer who can write a simple NDA for you or tweak the one you have. You may be able to find someone in your community who can do it for a few hundred bucks.
An NDA does not necessarily need to be notarized to be valid. The key elements for its validity are mutual agreement, clearly defined terms, and exchange of consideration (which can be the mutual exchange of information).
You don't need a lawyer to create the agreement, but you may need someone with legal expertise to review it.
Typically, a legal professional writing the NDA will complete these steps: Step 1 - Describe the scope. Which information is considered confidential? ... Step 2 - Detail party obligations. Step 3 - Note potential exclusions. Step 4 - Set the term. Step 5 - Spell out consequences.
You do not need a lawyer to create and sign a non-disclosure agreement. However, if the information you are trying to protect is important enough to warrant an NDA, you may want to have the document reviewed by someone with legal expertise.
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are legal documents that establish contractual conditions for the exchange of information where a disclosing party shares confidential information with a receiving party. The NDA defines information that the parties wish to protect from dissemination and outlines restrictions on use.
There are three types of NDAs: unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral. Read on to learn when you should use each type. You'll also learn how to use a contract management tool like Ironclad to draft and manage them.