Business & Corporate Law

In the event of a dispute, terms of business can provide clarity as to what happens in any given situation. Instead of leaving things to chance, or relying on what has happened in the past, well drafted terms of business can tip the balance in your favour and also help project a professional outlook to your customers and suppliers.

If you are carrying out work for someone else, one of the most important things is ensuring you get paid. Our advice covers situations where payment might be risky, including how to ensure that your goods or products are safe from an Insolvency Practitioner in the event of you not being paid and where it might be necessary to limit the exposure of your business to liabilities.

Other areas which might be important relate to the specification of an order, delivery, price reviews and acceptance of the order. All of these ought to be addressed in your standard terms.

It is not only having a standard set of contractual terms which is important, however. It is also essential to make sure that such terms are actually incorporated into a contract, so that they become enforceable in the event of a problem arising. Our work will analyse how your terms become part of the contract and how you can win the “Battle of the Forms”, so that your terms prevail over the other party’s.

Standard terms are also at risk from being found to be unreasonable. In such cases, the Courts will remove the offending clauses completely from the contract, rather than substituting more reasonable terms. This could have a serious effect on the practical result of the contract. It is therefore important to ensure that your contractual terms are reasonable and we can help you through this potential minefield.

Recent examples of work include:

• Consultancy services contract in the education sector;
• Amending terms and conditions of purchase for an engineering support client;
• Ensuring appropriate liability caps were inserted in an agreement with a major supplier in the steel industry.