There are several good reasons to have a ‘copyright’ notice on legal forms. It protects you, too. Whenever someone decides they need a legal “form,” they need to be aware that the same rules apply to using a form as in trying to get any other kind of legal information.
 
Each case, each person is really unique, and this can be especially important in defining what some parties agree to be ‘independent contracting.’ Last (but not last) having a sample form helps you make better decisions about how you want to create a better fit, for the specific facts in your situation.
 
Telling the difference between independent contracting and regular employment is such a common legal issue in doing business, that the Small Business Administration has special info kits to help you deal with making an agreement that meets your needs: http://www .sba.gov/content/self-employed-independent-contractors.
                                
Let’s look at the issues of using the best language in a form, under either state or federal rules of how independent contacting is defined.
 
IRS Rules
 
While there are possibly important differences between a single state’s rules and the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS is definitely the 500 pound gorilla when it comes to how legal issues about independent contracting (IC) get settled. This is because most people use the IRS definition to avoid tax problems…and only later get into unexpected state court problems of legal liability (especially to third parties and in auto accident cases).
 
Here’s a useful ‘checklist’ from the IRS. http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc762.html. This listing should be translated into the specifics of the language used in any form you write.
 
One big problem with the IRS is that they tend to have “easy” choices and hard choices in telling what the work “is.” The IRS has decades of looking at many recognized professions and calling them independent contractors….so if you fall into one of these categories, you can expect an easier time of not running afoul of the IRS definition. Specifically, the IRS says: “Doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, accountants, contractors, subcontractors, public stenographers, or auctioneers… (those in a) profession offering services to the general public” are usually independent contractors.”
 
Both an employee and independent contactor? Yes, that can happen. You may also need to walk a fine line, and ask for help in business planning, if you need to tell the difference in how some work is as an employee and some is as an independent contractor. Try http://www.scorepdx.org/.
 
State Rules
 
There are also Oregon court rulings to help guide you in creating your own IC form. Let’s look at a case where a state agency argued that it had not hired someone as an employee, but as an independent contractor. These kinds of cases will also help you test any form you choose to develop, to see if it’s clear, fair, consistent with other legal rules, and what both parties objectively agreed to. Here’s where you can look at the case we’ll talk about here as an example… http://caselaw.findlaw.com/or-court-of-appeals/1346481.html.
 
First, there are “common law” principles of law. Second was whether a state legislature had any specific definitions. These are court decisions, and they can be very different from state to state. The assumption here is that this is a business relationship made in, or between, Oregon parties. This may change, for example, based on one of you being, say, a Washington state resident, or doing a lot of business in Washington (or another adjacent state). In the Oregon case I’m using here, the big common law question was the amount of “control” over the worker. Despite working together for more than 20 years, the court agreed that the worker had such a degree of “independent judgement” that they were not properly employees.