2 Things You Need to Know About Contracts

According to www.law.cornell.edu, "A standard form contract drafted by one party (usually a business with stronger bargaining power) and signed by the weaker party (usually a consumer in need of goods or services), who must adhere to the contract and therefore does not have the power to negotiate or modify the terms of the contract."

What does this mean?  This means that most of the contracts you sign are contracts of adhesion, meaning that you sign a contract where all the stipulations were determined by the person writing the contract.

According to www.inc.com, "Although lots of contracts are filled with mind-bending legal gibberish, there's no reason why this has to be true. For most contracts, legalese is not essential or even helpful."  Unfortunately, the more clear you try to make something, the more complex it becomes.  If your goal is clarity, the contract should be short and simple.  As an example, see whatis.techtarget.com, which shows how difficult it could be to define the number 0.

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/business/2-things-you-need-to-know-about-contracts/, originally written on February 10th, 2013.