Contract law in one short article? Impossible. Not just hard impossible but impossible like climbing Mount Everest in the nude impossible.
Instead, I am just going to knock on some myths about contracts. That is more like climbing Mount Everest in a bathing suit.
Every Contract Has to Be in Writing. Nope, wrong. Contracts involving land and labor that will take over a year and certain consumer transactions must be in writing to be valid. A contract is an offer and an acceptance and that can be oral. Better that everyone writes down what was offered and accepted so that the written document can be used as evidence.
You Do Not Need A Lawyer to Write a Contract. This one depends on what will happen if the contract gets breached, how much will you lose if the deal goes bad. I say it is a gamble and the best place to gamble is at a casino and not with your business. Many years ago a client brought me an eviction, he had proudly bought his lease at Decker's (yes, it was that long ago) and talked about saving so much money on attorney fees. Problem was that the lease was pro-tenant and it cost him much more to get the person evicted than a would have a proper lease.
You Do Not Need a Lawyer to Read a Contract Before Signing a Contract. This is true – so long as the contract works the way you want it to. If the contract does no work out the way you wanted, then you get to pay a lawyer for litigation. Or you maybe you will have other costs. It seems a lot of the subprime mortgage crisis came about because people signed off mortgages without knowing what they were doing. Now they are dealing with foreclosures. While there are some times when a court will not enforce a contract, "oops, I didn't have my lawyer look it over first" is not a defense. The contracts where a court will not enforce a contract include: one side is mentally incompetent, one side is younger than 18 years of age, the contract is against public policy. (And what is against public policy? Contracting for illegal services is against public policy. This scenario proposed by someone would be – in my opinion – against public policy: “....the contract said a person had the right to, say, legally adopt your children if they didn't fulfill the terms of the contract....”). What you get is attorney fees for litigation instead of attorney fees for reading a contract. I call this penny wise and pound foolish.
Lawyers Are Dealbreakers. A friend used to say this to me. After some extended litigation, he no longer says that. The only deals that ought to be broken by bringing in the lawyers is one that would have been, probably should have been broken.
Any Contract Can Be Set Aside After Three Days. No, only sales at home can be set aside after three days.
I think that hits some of the high points. Now let me leave you with the best advice I can give about contracts: Get a lawyer because an ounce of prevention is worth more than a year or more of litigation and all those attorney fees.
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