Marc - I'm nearly certain we went through public school together. We might have even had a previous chat in another thread about year ago. My thinking is that

Marc - I'm nearly certain we went through public school together. We might have even had a previous chat in another thread about year ago. My thinking is that too often freelancers think "I'm just a freelancer" rather than "I run a business" and it is important to make the mental leap because of the key word you said above - risk. We need contracts because they give all parties clear expectations of what is expected to happen, but also what will transpire in the event things don't go the way we expect. Without a well-written legal contract in place, both parties are at the mercy of each other acting in good faith, and unfortunately that's not always how things actually go. As a freelancer too, we often have a lot of personal skin in the game, which to my mind makes it even more imperative to have professional advice from accountants and lawyers, because we have more to lose personally. On the accounting front, I see a lot of people who make mistakes that cost themselves a lot of money because they didn't spend the relatively modest amount to get good professional advice. As another commenter stated in this same thread, the amount accountants save you pays for their cost. Run of the mill lawyers generally bill between $200-$300/hour, so $3K might work out to ten hours of work. For many freelancers with basic needs, resources like Nolo or your local SBA office might be more affordable and get to the same goal - we're still getting professional advice, just in a different form.