Contracts are Serious Business
Sunday, January 29th, 2012
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer and I have no claim that this advice should be taken as legal advice in replacement of seeking out professional help. What I hope to do is educate you over a series of small posts about what constitutes a contract and you should be able to figure out when you might need to see a real lawyer. Although this series is in the Australian context many of the principles apply in other countries.
The Myth of Writing your own Contracts
One of the stupidest things anybody could do in business is try to shortcut their way through the legal landscape. Just like accountants will save you more money than they cost… so will hiring a decent lawyer.
For a lot of people this is real news: a contract isn’t just anything you cobble together and get some fool to sign. There is a structure, like a dance, that determines when and where any contract was made, the parts that are valid and the aspects the courts will or won’t enforce. But I’ve received my fair share of these self-authored car wrecks to know it’s a real problem. People do want to cut corners in the short-term.
The real and present danger is that small businesses generally have no idea about contract law… and I’m hoping they might glean one thing from reading through this series of 15 posts (starting with Contracts 101 – Part 1: Outline). That one thing is this:
Sometimes you just need to know when to hire a lawyer. Appreciate what you don’t know.
Installments in Contracts 101
- Contracts 101 – Part 1: Outline
- Contracts 101 – Part 2: Which Contract?
- Contracts 101 – Part 3: The Six Elements
- Contracts 101 – Part 4: The Agreement
- Contracts 101 – Part 5: The Offer
- Contracts 101 – Part 6: The Acceptance
- Contracts 101 – Part 7: Battle of the Forms
- Contracts 101 – Part 8: Consideration
- Contracts 101 – Part 9: Capacity
- Contracts 101 – Part 10: Legality of Object
- Contracts 101 – Part 11: Possibility of Performance
- Contracts 101 – Part 12: Genuine Consent
- Contracts 101 – Part 13: Promissory Estoppel
- Contracts 101 – Part 14: Ending the Contract
- Contracts 101 – Conclusion: Protect your Business
