Contract Review

 

• Step 1- Understanding Your Needs:  It is common to review a contract for a business and realize the contract doesn't proivde for what the user intends- or worse yet, the contract leaves the business open to unintended or unnecessary liability.  The first step in reviewing or drafting a contract is understand your needs and feelings about exposure to obligations. 

• Refined Thoroughness:  Every contract reviewed or drafted by an Achieve Legal contract attorney is done so using checklists and models refined through years of experience and having experience with thousands of contracts from commercial leases to vendor contracts to corporate governance agreements, management agreements and more.

• Adaptability: The laws are ever-changing, but more than that, the interpretation of those laws constantly changes as the perspectives of courts change with new judges and new rulings.  It is imperative that you have an attorney who stays up-to-date on business law trends, changes and rulings.

 

Find out more about a contract review program that may fit your company best, by completing & submitting the questionnaire on this page.

 

Breach of Contract

When a party to a contract fails to perform a material obligation contained in that contract, that is a breach of contract, generally, whether the failure to perform was intentional or not.  Here are some of the ways a breach of contract dispute can be resolved:

 

• Cure the Breach:  The breaching party may contractually be permitted to cure the breach.  The non-breaching party may allow the breaching party to cure the breach, even if the contract does not require the non-breaching party to allow for the cure.

• Conciliation:  The parties may meet informally to negotiate terms of a new agreement in order to solve the problem.  Often, a conciliation is conducted with the assistance of an attorney representing the "transaction," or attorneys representing each party to the transaction.

• Mediation:  Mediation may be entered into voluntarily, or the contract may provide for disputes to be resolved through mediation.  Most often, one mediator is mutually selected by the parties to help discuss the issues, possibly propose solutions and govern over the signing of a mediation agreement.  Sometimes there may be more than one mediator involved.  If no mediation agreement is signed, then typically whatever is agreed upone in the mediation may be invalidated.  Sometimes the parties find themselves unable to agree to terms, which is called an impasse, which may or may not allow for the mediation to re-convene.

• Arbitration:  Arbitration works much like court litigation, though sometimes can operate a bit more informally, and also may offer a great deal more privacy.  Often arbitration is selected as a mandatory dispute resolution requirement instead of court litigation in contracts.

• Termination:  It is possible the cleanest way to resolve a matter is to terminate the contract and for the parties to move on. 

• Litigation:  Litigation typically should be considered a last resort, but once litigation has commenced, most lawsuits are settled, though the litigants should plan for, consider and litigate with the intention of completing the litigation by prosecuting or defending vigorously.

 

One big mistake often made is when the contract has been breached, the non-breaching party believes it then is no longer to obligated to perform on the contract, but that is not always the case.  Make sure you consult an attorney before taking action to resolve a breach of contract matter.

 

Get a better idea about your legal options by completing

and submitting the questionnaire on this page.