Hey I might partner up with someone who already owns and operates a small site. We will run the site with 50/50 ownership, but everything is still under his name. Any suggestions on what I should do so if we ever had to sell the site and something happened I could show that I own half the site. Has anyone ever done this? I guess I should ask him to sign a contract? Does anyone know where I can find one on the net that would be legally binding?
Yes sign a contract for sure. Partnerships are known for getting "sticky". It doesn't matter how much you trust this person or how good of friends you are, partnerships just have a tendency to get ugly and the only way it can be solved is by having legal documents. This will prevent any conflict in the future, you never know what the potential of this website is so it's better to get everything straight before things start to take off with your business.
Under no circumstances would I provide any further work without a written agreement. If the intention is to go 50-50 into owning the site and its assets, then put it in writing. If your partner is afraid to do so, then you should ask yourself why that would be the case. Ask him and decide whether you really like the answer. Whatever it is, if you don't put it in writing now, 99% of the time you're sorry later. Things change, especially when money is involved.