Everyone’s nervous the first time few times they represent themselves in court.
Preparation goes an awful long way to a better court appearance.
It takes a lot of work to have a good day in court.
Here a few tips to tell you what to expect, and what to do prepare yourself for your day in court.
Sometimes, what’s not in a contract is more important than what is.
You read a contract. Reading only the express terms, you might not get the full story.
There may be implied terms.
Terms implied into contracts can change what you’re reading. They can re-balance one-sided business agreements. They can address behaviour that frustrates performance of the contract.
In fact, implied terms can put you – or your contracting partner – in serious breach of contract.
The law takes legally binding contracts seriously. It is difficult to escape liability for performance, even when something happens that makes it difficult, more expensive or onerous to perform.
Whether a contract has been frustrated or not can mean the difference between:
Frustration of contract is the general law’s method of allowing parties to be relieved of their legal obligations.
With so many different sorts of contracts out there, you can expect to be doing contract reviews on whole host of different agreements.
All contracts will have some effect on your business. Some big, some small.
If you haven’t read it or don’t understand it, you’re exposing your business to unknown risks. Missing them means that you are putting your business at risk. Exposure to financially costly events cause unnecessary or fatal strains on your business and your relationships.
Where do you start with your contract review process when you’re confronted with a beast of a contract?
Starting from the very beginning and going through it one page after another is a mistake. You’ll 10x the time you need to get into it, understand it, find the gaps and fix them so that it works for your business.
There’s a better way.
Implement a structured process to do it.
Here’s how: