Written Consent: How is it Done?

By | October 4, 2011

It’s one of the most powerful tools in everyone’s legal arsenal: written consent. Reality TV shows require written consent to broadcast certain footage; other people are able to use royalty-protected songs and trademarks with written consent. It is essentially “legal permission,” and without it, you can find yourself in very deep water indeed.

But let’s say you’re on the other side of the issue and you’re the one who needs to offer consent. How do you actually accomplish that?

Of course, at a site like FindLegalForms.com, you can find a lot of documents to help you put in legal terms what you can only write in layman terms. But in this article, we’ll steer you in the proper direction for achieving just that – and tell you where you can find some help at this very site. Without any further ado, let’s grant someone legal permission.

Step #1: Evaluate your strategy. If you’re putting down your legal consent in writing, you’ll want to make sure that what you’re doing is the right decision. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you what to do because we don’t know what your current situation’s legal demands are. But we can offer some time-tested tips for dealing with this stage of the game.

First, ask yourself what will happen if you offer this written consent? Are there any unforeseen circumstances that you might not have thought of yet? Or ask yourself this: what’s the worst that can happen? This question is particularly effective at alleviating any potential fears you have.

Step #2: Make sure you have the right forms. There are a lot of written consent forms available here at FindLegalForms.com, but it’s important to note no two of these forms or kits are exactly alike. One might be designed for business shareholders; another is designed for Minor Release agreements. Make sure that you have the right forms to suit your situation before you sign over written consent; using the wrong forms could ultimately make the deal null and void.

In many cases, finding the right forms is as simple as finding the forms for your specific situation and ordering them from our site. But if you have trouble or are confused about which are the right forms, don’t give up – feel free to contact us to learn about what forms would work best in your situation.

Step #3: Review and sign. Once you have everything in place, give everything a good once-over and be sure that you’re making the right decision. Then sign the forms at your disposal so that your permission can allow proceedings – in whatever situation it might be – to go forward.

Providing written consent can really be that easy. It’s possible to draft your own written consent forms, of course, but you’ll want to be wary of doing this if you have no legal experience. You could, after all, leave out (or put in) clauses that really don’t belong in a written consent form. It’s better to leave the legal drafting to the professionals so that you can get on with your life with less work – and less fuss.