TheLawTog is the only dedicated legal + business resource for photographers. With practicing lawyers, business consultants, CPAs, financial planners (and more!) you’ll get information with first-hand experience to help your photography business. Working with TheLawTog you'll provide your customers with the best legal knowledge + templates on the market.

Rachel, TheLawTog®, is a actively practicing intellectual property, copyright & business lawyer. Through her firm, Eden Law, and TheLawTog® Rachel has helped thousands of photographers protect their businesses. Along with her team of legal & photography experts you will not find another team more knowledgeable on the photography industry.

TheLawTog® is owned and run by a licensed attorney, Rachel Brenke, but this website is not a law firm. If you would like 1:1 help from Rachel please reach out at her law firm - Eden Law..

Yes! We are so happy that you love TheLawTog contracts, templates + products.  Becoming a Partner is the best way to reward yourself while helping your friends & colleagues get legit in their biz. You can find out more here!

Yes! Check out our Ultimate Legal Guide here for definitions.

Contracts may be used an unlimited amount of times by the purchaser. Each file includes ONE license and may not be shared or distributed.

All files must be downloaded within 72 hours of purchase.

Keeping your biz legally legit is our goal! If laws change or we update your contract we will provide a complimentary update to your product.

We do not provide unlimited cloud storage for your items. All downloads must be downloaded within 72 hours and backed up. In the event of loss, we can reset your download permissions for a $25 Download Recovery fee. Items purchased prior to January 1, 2020 may be retired and no longer available.

Each of the different contract templates have specific provisions written for the type of photography they reference. For example: A birth or wedding photographer may want to to contract for a required break, whereas, a general portrait photographer may not necessarily need that specific provision. There are other provisions even more specific to each type so over the long-term it’s always best to have a contract that speaks to the type of photography you’re shooting with the client. 

If you work with general portraiture (or multiple types), the general portrait contract is a great place to start.

No. Once you've purchased a contract you can use it over & over as needed.

Hi {%customer.firstName,fallback=%}.  Thanks for emailing - you can get your product a couple of ways!  

(1) You will be rerouted after a successful payment to a confirmation page which will havea link to your downloads or courses.(2) You will receive a confirmation email that includes aView Your Order button. This button will take you to your confirmation page.

(3) You will receive an email with direct link todownload your templates(Subject: Let's Download Your Items) oraccess your course(Subject: It's Time to Start Your Education.)

If you have any questions feel free to reach out.  We're always here to help!

What is the law behind these contract forms?

TheLawTog®’s contract forms are drafted on general American law-based contract principles and are applicable to many states.  Due to variations in law based on location and business policies, the contracts are editable and easily adaptable.

If you are a photographer outside the US, the policies may be implemented for your business, but U.S. Federal Copyright laws and other legal theories may not apply.  For example, in the United States, unless otherwise contracted, the photographer retains copyright ownership of images. However, in other countries, the law may give the copyright ownership to the client and necessitate a provision for transfer. 

The contract templates provide a good foundation for a local attorney to amend for the laws of your country versus your attorney drafting from scratch.

It is recommended that a local attorney review your contract, including changes, for legitimacy.  You can search your state bar listings for a contracts or business attorney.  We are working to add attorneys in other countries to the list.

Why do you say I need to amend these contracts for my location?

While TheLawTog®’s contracts go through a multi-level review process after working intimately with various photographers per niche, we are unable to target in on every protection that you may want to include, plus laws can vary in different states and countries.  Try as we might, we do our best to provide a comprehensive and quality contract.

TheLawTog® receives no “kickbacks” or monies for these recommendations.  This is 100% giving back to help you get the best protection you need.

The best part of having these contract forms available is that they can provide you with a higher quality, more comprehensive and cheaper bill with a local attorney.  See examples here. Small business lawyers are a great starting line for protection, but many have never been a photographer or have run a photography business.  These forms help to fill that void.

The words in the parentheses or quotation marks act as defining terms so that the reader knows that when they see the same word listed in the document it refers to the person or organization whose name is entered in the space immediately preceding the parenthetical.

Example: 

This Portrait Agreement (“Agreement”) is entered into as of the January 18, 2019, by and between SnapShots Photography, LLC, a Virginia Limited Liability Company with a primary address of 111 Photography Street, Photographsville, PA, 22222 (“Photographer”), and ­­­Jane Client with a primary contact address of 111 Client Street, Clientsville, PA 11111 (“Client”), each a “Party” and collectively the “Parties.”

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Do not touch the part that says "Photographer" or "Parties".  Anything in quotations like this is a term that is being defined within the contract. If you notice, you just outlined the name and entity type in the blank before it.  That means the term Photographer = Your Business Name, Entity type.   See example above.

You can open Microsoft Files a few ways if you don't have Microsoft Office

#1 Google Docs 

#2 Open Office

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Word:

Step 1: If you already have Microsoft Word opened, click File in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.  Some versions of Word may have an ‘Office’ button in the same place. Click on this to bring up the menu to continue.

Step 2: Click Open.

Step 3: An ‘Open’ dialogue box will pop up. From this, find your way to the folder in which your document is saved. Folders are shown down the left-hand side of the dialogue box

Step 4: Once you’ve located your document and clicked on it to select it, its name will be shown in the ‘File name’ box at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Step 5: Click Open.

The document will then be opened.It is recommended that you save a new version when you start editing so you don't disrupt the original version.

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Google Drive:

Open your Google Drive and click New.Select File upload.Select the Word doc and click Open. The filewill now upload.To save your Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide back as an Office file:Open the Docs, Sheets, or Slides app.Next to a file, tap More .Choose Share & export.Select Save as Word (or Excel or PowerPoint).

For more help Google's tutorials are here >> https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/docs/get-started/

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Google Docs:

Google Spreadsheets is a Web-based application that allows users to create, update and modify spreadsheets and share the data live online. The Ajax-based program is compatible with Microsoft Excel and CSV (comma-separated values) files.Spreadsheets can also be saved as HTML.

To open, go to the Google Sheets Home. Then hit the Open file picker icon in the top-right corner. Next, hit the Upload tab and drag your XLS file into the Upload section or hit Select a file from your computer and choose the Excel file you want to upload.  For more tutorials >> http://www.documentsnap.com/convert-excel-to-google-sheets/

Do I have to pay for Googlesheets? No! https://www.google.com/sheets/about/

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After you have downloaded your contract and located the designated downloads destination: 

Control-click (or right-click) the Word document icon to get its pop-up menu.While the menu is visible, also hold down the Option key. ...Choose “Always Open With.”

Definitions are legal terms that create a concise language throughout your contract.  Think of them as legal terms that keep your document consistent.  These are often notated with "(TERM)" 

Use your location + entity type. An example of this would be A Texas Limited Liability Company.

Sure.  The terms in the parenthesis can be changed to suit your own personal preferences but be sure to change them throughout the entire document.  If you want to refer to a non-refundable fee as "Cake" you can.  But we advise leaving them as drafted.

The spreadsheet(s) come as an Excel file - you can use these on Microsoft Excel or Google Docs.  

For individual tutorials on how to open in each of these go to > http://thelawtog.helpscoutdocs.com/category/33-tech-help

Click File > Open > Computer > Browse. To only see files saved in the OpenDocument format, in the file type list (next to the File name box), click OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods).Find the file you want to open, and then click Open.

For more Office tutorials go here >> https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-Excel-to-open-or-save-a-worksheet-in-the-OpenDocument-Spreadsheet-ods-format-c7114baa-f08a-49eb-aefd-f5d61ed347cd

The videos are set up to work with main stream browsers and displays – however – your personal settings (zoom feature, etc) may vary depending on your specific set up. The course is optimized for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, with some support for Internet Explorer (recent updates may hinder). If at any time you are unable to access the course contact info@thelawtog.com after ensuring you have the most updated version of the browser.

Example: This Agreement is entered into as of the DATE, by and between [BUSINESS NAME, ENTITY],  a [STATE/COMMONWEALTH] [ENTITY TYPE] with a primary address of ___________________  (“Photographer ”),  and ­­­[CLIENT NAME] with a primary contact address of ___________________________________ (“Client”), each a “Party” and collectively the “Parties.”

Date = Date of agreement

Business name and entity = The Photography Studio, a Virginia Limited Liability Company

There is a highlighted blank of late-fees because these are state specific you'll need to check your specific state's maximum.

This refers to your "menu" or "price list" of offerings.

This provision comes into play if you have to go to court, and discusses who is responsible for the attorney’s fees. Again, this is just something that is part of the contract that proves it was something that was agreed to by both parties if an issue arises regarding who is responsible for the fees. The court may throw it out, or they may reinforce it. Their decision is entirely fact-specific and dependent on your situation, but it’s important that you at least have it in writing to begin with.

This means that if there any ambiguities that need to be resolved relating to this contract that the ambiguities will not be interpreted against you, as the drafting party. It also states that “The contract shall be interpreted as to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against any party,” which means that interpreting this contract shall be done in such a way that is fair to everyone involved and not biased to one party or the other.

This means that if you and your client agree to a modification of the contract one time, it doesn’t mean that that any and all modifications in the future automatically (even if it’s for the same type of modification). It means that each modification must be agreed upon, in writing, each time, by you and your client. 

So for example. Let’s say that the gallery unarchival fee was $25, but I waive it for customer service reasons. This miscellany provision means that just because I waived a fee once that is stated in the contract that the client has to pay, doesn’t mean that the rest of the contract is invalidated (or that I have to waive the fee again if the ask for their gallery to be unarchived a second time). And this is important because it allows you to provide great customer service in some situations, but doesn’t require you to if you don’t feel it’s appropriate. So if you do decide to amend this contract in any way, do not delete this provision. 

“To indemnify” means to compensate someone for his/her harm or loss. In most contracts, an indemnification clause serves to compensate a party for harm or loss arising in connection with the other party's actions or failure to act. The intent is to shift liability away from one party, and on to the indemnifying party.

If any portion of this Agreement is deemed to be illegal or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this Agreement remain in full force.

Governing Law:

"This Agreement will be construed under STATE law, without regard to its choice of law provisions."

Identify the state law which you will have applied to enforcement and interpretation of the agreement.

Venue:

"The state and federal courts for COUNTY/CITY, STATE will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising under or relating to this Agreement."

Select the most convenient venue to you and/or your attorney for convenient resolution of any matters.

If you are not in the United States, you'll need to comply with formalities for your country.

Arbitration is a private process to settle a dispute between two parties outside of court. During arbitration the presiding arbitrator (facilitator of the process) will hear arguments and receive from each side and subsequently issue a decision about how the dispute will be resolved. Even though it's done outside of court, a decision passed down in arbitration is binding, unlike other forms of mediation where a decision may be given but the parties aren't required to uphold the terms of the decision. Arbitrators are paid for their time, usually by the hour. check the standard rates for your local arbitrators to get an idea of what the process may cost.