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.
The nondisclosure agreement should identify the parties to the agreement and which one is the disclosing party, or side sharing the information, and the recipient. Names and addresses of the parties should be included. The agreement should also identify other individuals who may be parties to the agreement.
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.
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.
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.
I hereby undertake to treat as confidential all and any information that I receive while participating in the work of evaluating project proposals, to use this information solely for the purpose of evaluation of the proposals, not to disclose it to any third party and not to make it publicly available or accessible ...
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).
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.
Five other key features must be included in your NDA to ensure it's legally binding, including a description of confidential information, obligations of the parties involved, any exclusions, the term of the agreement and consequences of a breach.