A Guide to the Guild’s Contract Vetting Service

The Writers’ Guild provides a basic contract vetting service for Full and Candidate members. It is run by the Guild staff and outsourced to external contract vetters when necessary.

The Guild’s contract vetting service covers:

• Contracts for freelance writers working in TV, Film, Theatre, Radio, Books, Children’s and New Media
• Option agreements
• Agency agreements
• Collaborators’ agreements (i.e. between writing partners)
  

When a contract is not covered by the Guild’s basic contract vetting service, Guild staff will do their best to advise members of alternative sources of advice.

This service is run at a cost to the Guild, so in order to make it available to as many members as possible, we ask that:

• Members read the relevant minimum terms agreement and rates on the Guild’s website before they apply to the Guild’s contract vetting service. This will enable members to identify any potential areas of concern before submitting their contract to be looked at
• Members provide a list of key questions and/or areas of particular concern, along with their contract. We will do our best to address these issues as well as giving a brief overview of the contract and whether, in our view, it complies with Guild minimum terms and/or general industry standards.
  

Members will usually receive comments within two weeks of submitting their contract. If you have an earlier deadline, please let us know and we will do our best to comply (although this is not always possible).

Who to contact:

The Guild’s contract vetting service is administered by:

• Anne Hogben, Deputy General Secretary - anne@writersguild.org.uk
• Naomi MacDonald, Assistant General Secretary - naomi@writersguild.org.uk
  

Alternatively, telephone the Guild office on 020 7833 0777 and the staff will be happy to direct you to the correct person. Please do not contact the Guild’s lawyers directly.