Client asking for a NDA - can I buy the ones online or do I need to get a lawyer?

If he wants you to sign an NDA, he can provide you with one. Why would he risk having you write the terms? (And if he's too cheap to get a lawyer, tell him to go to LegalZoom.)

Absolutely no need to pay. There are so many free ones out there. If he's too lazy to write it, then you go get one that limits his rights.

Absolutely! If your client wants you to sign an NDA then they need to provide the NDA for you to sign.

You can look them up online, but I would agree if he want an NDA, you have the right to ask him to provide you one. The NDA is to protect his privacy which mean he wanted to cover x, y, and z, which make it his duty to come up with one

Thanks everyone.

I will ask him to provide it and just maybe get a lawyer to run their eyes over it for me, it is all a bit new for me.

Absolutely nothing wrong with getting a lawyer, but that may be overkill. If you have a good comprehension of the English language, you should be able to simply read it carefully and understand the terms yourself. They generally state that he owns everything and that you can't tell anyone anything about the project.

I've dealt with NDAs several times over the past few years. If you want I can overlook yours for free. No lawyer needed.

I've signed NDAs before, they're no biggie. But I don't think your client understands them very well. It's the client that gives you the NDA to sign because they're usually specific to their business. Tell the client you'd be happy to sign the NDA they provide after you review it.

There are affordable paralegals you can find on Upwork or Freelancer. Or, you can simply read your NDA and change a thing here and there. Eventually, it all comes down to a relationship you wanna build with your client. One thing, though. Usually the clients provide the NDAs, not the other way around. If you are providing work for someone then it is a little bit strange for your client to ask an NDA, but actually not to have one ready. Just give it a thought.

It depends on the size of the project I would say.

I'm confused though. He wants YOU to provide a NDA? Typically it works the other way around.

If they are requesting it then they should be supplying it. I've never heard of someone requesting one but not providing it.

It depends on how much you've got to gain or lose, depending on what happens.

I'm sure you'd agree that for a deal worth a million bucks, it would be worth spending a little on a lawyer initially. But for a deal worth a handful of dollars, it obviously wouldn't be worth spending a lot more than that to get a lawyer's help.

So you need to calculate the potential value of the deal, and find out about lawyer fees and make an educated decision.

Also keep in mind that lawyers often charge you a big fee, for just changing a few words on a standard agreement (real-estate people the same . . . for example for one document they said they'd charge $100, so I got an agreement with the owner to just use the standard document, and they said they'd still charge $100, even though all they ever do for that document is press the "copy" button on a photocopier). So make sure you find out what you're REALLY getting for your money

Chris

As suggested below you can solved this by sending a statement with a digital signature - you can sign the NDA provided by the client.

That is probably what the client expected of you. But you didn't realize that.

You went back (days later?) and asked the client to provide the NDA - and he did.

Read it - unless it's in a foreign language it shouldn't be that hard to understand what it says. You have gotten good advice from at least 3 people in this thread who are totally familiar with NDA's. It's been 5 days since you started the thread and you are asking the same questions. If I were the client, I'd be having second thoughts about a freelancer delaying an NDA agreement.

Edit: If you still feel you need a lawyer - then pay for a lawyer's advice. Don't try to get legal advice for free as some would suggest.