It depends. One day I went to a doctor’s office to have my skin condition checked up. I asked the doctor if the condition was as bad as google said. The doctor said to me “ You should not google your condition.” After checking my condition, he turned to his computer screen and started googling. I chuckled and asked him “ what are you doing then, Doc?” “What I google is different than what you do. “.
This also holds true to use of template. Granted, lawyers use legal templates. I select templates, blend them together and modify each every clauses to reflect the term sheets I prepare for the clients. The key word here is the term sheet. A good lawyer use templates intentionally. Not only they know what the clauses mean, they know when they are poorly written or damaging to the clients. Just like Doctors know how to wade through myths to find truth, Lawyers select the correct legal clauses for clients.
Contracts are minutes of meeting of minds. They are records of promises made by contractural parties to one another. For a template user, you’d better know what promises you have made and what promises you should receive. If you do not know all of these, signing contract becomes meaningless. To make things worse, when there is a dispute, you might be stunned by the promises you have made yet you cannot, or fail to keep, or you do not know you should keep. Equally bad is you forget to bargain for promises you are entitled to and waive your right without even knowing it.
There had never been a shortage of lawsuits arising from bad templates, resulting in already bruised contractual parties losing the battle after spending a fortune in the meat-grinding litigation process.