a question for any attorneys out there

[HereComesTom 2,267]

I'm not looking for free legal advice; I've just had an experience enough times to pique my curiosity.

When I see a long terms-of-service agreement or contract or something the like that asks for my signature (especially in real life), I tend to read it before signing.  But one thing I've noticed several times now is that there are often minor mistakes---two section F's and no section E, paragraph 2-a having a roman-numerals list that goes from (iv) to (vi) with no (v) in between, that kind of thing.

My question is:  do attorneys deliberately put minor mistakes in these contracts to see if anyone points them out, to check to see if we're paying attention?

[simba86 1,541]

I am no attorney but I would say those empty spots and missing areas are either places where stuff used to be that got deleted because it is no longer needed or open space in case they need to add something

[BlueStreak98 828]

It's possible that the document may have been drafted by someone who has no clue what they're doing. Few businesses without a built in legal department have contracts written by lawyers. It's also possible that they may be trying to create loopholes for themselves to get out of parts of the contract. In the cases where you know it was written by a legal mind, it's worth remembering that a lot of attorneys major in Philosophy or Political Science--not in English.

Source: My father has been a practicing attorney since 1986.

Edited May 10, 2017 by BlueStreak98

[Jeric 46,851]

4 hours ago, HereComesTom said:

My question is:  do attorneys deliberately put minor mistakes in these contracts to see if anyone points them out, to check to see if we're paying attention?

I'm not an attorney, but I have enough experience in reviewing contracts governed by significant regulation. I also have significant experience working with inside and outside counsel to answer this.

The answer is that it is not a test ... but one example counts as intentional. I am aware of instances where skipped subsections occur because of revisions in the document required the removal. Sometimes altering anything about a subsection requires  additional compliance related validation. That would also include altering the the subsection number. It basically increases time and adds layers of bureaucracy before signing off on a document. Because of this you will occasionally see a skipped number. 

I don't recall repeated schemes, so that sounds like someone along the copywriting process missed the mistake. Believe it or not, not all attorneys draft contracts or Terms of Service.

In my last job, they were reviewed by a staff attorney and outside attorney, but drafted by a compliance and contract coordinator. Mistakes do happen, more frequently than I care admit. Someone would find it, but there were people during contract review who would only read through specific items like Scope of Work or client specific requirements and sign off on the whole thing trusting that standard language was fine and would be proofed by someone else. 

[HereComesTom 2,267]

Thanks; I was curious about whether this was a check to see if anyone is paying attention, because it's my experience that, in a lot of cases, they don't really expect you to read the long document before signing it.  That's not smart, but not uncommon, either.

But these other explanations make a lot more sense than what I was thinking!