Contract Basics

The $100,000 Importance of Understanding Contracts

by Graham Martin on October 5, 2011 · 0 comments

reward poster

In 2010, a woman named Ronni Chasen was terribly murdered in Palm Springs, California. In response to her killing, Harold Matzner offered a $100,000 reward for information “leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder.” But when someone provided a tip to the police confirming that one of their suspects was the murderer, the originator of the tip didn’t receive the money. Why?

Share

R, S, T, L, N & E: Commonalities in Contracts

February 11, 2011
red fractal

You can pretty much assume that you will find most (or all) of the following provisions in any commercial or adhesion contract you encounter, and can instead focus your attention on the clauses that are unique to the contract. Knowing what these common provisions are should help you be more aware of what happens each time you sign a contract, and allow you to more effectively skim those blasted contract monstrosities.

Share
Read the full article →

What Are Adhesion Contracts?

November 9, 2010

Most of the contracts we sign are known as adhesion contracts. These are contracts one party writes entirely and the other party must accept without making changes. And even though consumers aren’t generally able to make changes to them, there are a few things you should know about them.

Share
Read the full article →

Force Majeure

August 9, 2010
Lightning_Storm_by_Karkit

Although I have already briefly addressed some common ways to get out of a contract, I haven’t touched on any of the more obscure methods for avoiding contractual obligations. So today I will be briefly exploring the concept of force majeure, and its related concept, Acts of God.

Share
Read the full article →

Contract Basics: Acceptance

March 8, 2010

Acceptance is the second of the three most basic necessities for forming a contract, the first being the Offer, and the third being Consideration. The Acceptance is generally considered to be much simpler to execute than the Offer, but like Offers there can be pitfalls to Acceptance that will void the Offer or fail to complete the agreement.

Share
Read the full article →