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Business Contracts and Legal
Agreements
Black's Law Dictionary
defines a contract as an agreement between two or
more entities which creates an obligation to do or not do a particular
thing. To be legally enforceable a contract
requires three elements:
- a subject,
- consideration,
- and
competent parties.
There is no such thing as a
"Standard Form"
Don't be fooled by preprinted
contracts or forms purchased from the Internet. These are attempts to
convince you that a contract is not an individual, custom negotiated
agreement between parties.
The best analogy is "standard
form clothes." This is where the 200 lb man gets a "standard form"
outfit...unfortunately it is a size 4 woman's miniskirt!
What is a Business Contract?
Contracts
are promises that the law will enforce. The law
provides remedies if a promise is breached or recognizes the
performance of a promise as a duty. Contracts arise when a duty does or
may come into existence, because of a promise made by one of the
parties. To be legally binding as a contract, a promise must be
exchanged for adequate consideration.
Adequate consideration is a
benefit or detriment which a party receives which reasonably and fairly
induces them to make the promise/contract . For example, promises that
are purely gifts are not considered enforceable because the personal
satisfaction the grantor of the promise may receive from the act of
giving is normally not considered adequate consideration. Certain
promises that are not considered contracts may, in limited
circumstances, be enforced if one party has relied to his detriment on
the assurances of the other party
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