Accidental contracting is an epidemic that only happens because clients, and too often lawyers, fail to appreciate that their informal communications can have contractual significance.
The electronic explosion allows for instantaneous communication, but it also allows the loose cannon in your client’s organization to make and modify multi-million dollar contracts with a text message -- without appropriate approvals, legal review, or deliberation.
Clients often enter into preliminary agreements in the course of working toward a more comprehensive contract – letters of intent, memoranda of understanding, etc. – without realizing that these documents can accidentally reach the parties’ ultimate contractual objective on the bigger contract depending on how they are worded. It’s one of the most frequently litigated issues in contract law.
Clients exploring business opportunities too often don’t realize that they’ve created a power of acceptance (in the parlance of contract law – they’ve made an offer), thinking that they’ve only engaged in preliminary banter.
This webinar will show you how to avoid fundamental -- and very costly -- mistakes by guarding against accidental contracting.
Recorded during a live webinar in September, 2017.