Contracts
FINE PRINT
S.T.O.P. Before Signing
If you're confronted with a Contract, meaning somebody has asked you to sign there's, what I tell my clients is to stop, STOP.
S stands for Scope of Work, meaning what is the contract hold you responsible to do? Just because you and I may actually talk about something. And I may walk away from that conversation with an expectation that, I understand what the scope of work is. It doesn't matter what you and I discuss because what's in the contract is what I am going to be judged on.
The T is the Time of Performance. Can I do what the contract says I should do within the time specified? I may expect that I only have to finish my work by June 30th. But the contract may say either to finish your work by March 1st, or you have to finish your work 30 days after Tom Smith finishes his work. And because that's a variable I can't control, I have to make allowances for the fact that according to the contract my time of performance is going to be up much faster than I originally assumed.
O in STOP, is for Other Documents. Certain contracts may say, such and such agreement is incorporated by a reference herein as a contract document. And that is a big legal phrase, and most people's eyes glaze over when they see the word herein or wherefore or thereto, or any of those hybrid words.
But it is in important segments, because what it means is, your agreement is not just what's in front of you on the pages that you are reading, but some other document outside of the pages you are reading is actually deemed to be part of the agreement that you are going to be signing.
Do you know what that document says? If you do, that's great, then you understand your risks and you can move on. But frequently people don't know. They've never read that outside document.
The P is Payment. For businesses that's where the rubber meets the road. How much am I going to get paid? When am I going to get paid? What happens if I don't get paid? What are my rights? If I perform 90% of my scope of work and then the other 10% through no fault of my own is postponed or eliminated from the scope, can I get paid or do I have to wait until everything is finished for me to get the first dollar? Stop, STOP.
So I tell my clients to run through those four analyses; they are signing an agreement that they fully understand.
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