A well-drafted commercial agreement can add significant value to your business, whereas poorly drafted agreements can be worse than no document at all.
Clarity is vital in commercial contract wording and the descriptions of terms on which goods and services are to be supplied and received. As business owners, you will have a variety of contractual relationships with employees, contractors, suppliers, customers/clients and other third parties. As your business grows and you introduce new products or services, you’ll need to review your general terms and conditions of business, or the contracts that reflect particular transactions or relationships with customers and suppliers.
It’s important to make sure your contract terms are specifically written for your business, so avoid the temptation to copy someone else’s terms as their business is different and may not be suitable in your case. If you don’t specify terms and conditions, you put yourself at risk of uncertainty and misunderstandings – it’s vital to establish the actual arrangement between the two parties involved in any deal.
Our commercial contract solicitors can draft, advise and negotiate on a range of commercial agreements for the provision of goods and services and make sure that your business is protected by written agreements tailored to your needs and that protect your interests and assets.
We are very aware of the budget limitations of small businesses and factor that into our quote, including an initial free consultation to advise you on the best steps forward.
Contact Sanjay Soni s.soni@thpsolicitors.co.uk or Malcom Head m.head@thpsolicitors.co.uk or call 01491 570 909 to see how we can help with your business needs.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to take legal action based on the contract, but even after an agreement comes to an end it is important to keep a copy on file for several years in case a later issue should arise.
As a supplier it is vital that the contract not only documents your obligations but also the customers obligations. It is very easy for a contract to focus on the suppliers’ obligations but there needs to be protection for a supplier that identifies what a customer must do to enable the supplier to deliver and a provision that says the supplier will not be in breach if that breach results from a customer being in breach of their obligations.
Sadly, it is often not until something goes wrong that many people appreciate the true value of a contract. Resolving these issues can be extremely costly in terms of time, money and stress whereas having a well drafted legally binding contract in place would have been cheaper, simpler, and eliminated these problems in advance.
Understanding the terms of contracts you enter enables you to manage the relationship as the contracts progress and spot actions and omissions which may become a problem under the contract before they “explode”. One of the fundamental mistakes made in documenting business relationships and creating contracts are phrases which “agree to agree”. Leaving a lack of clarity on issues relating to the supply of goods and services or their delivery can then be again misconstrued and place an obligation on one of the parties to accept the reasonableness of terms and conditions which was not their intention.
Terms and conditions may all look much the same if you just skim them briefly but in fact they vary greatly because they can cover many different situations and should reflect the business they are written for. We unfortunately spend quite a lot of time advising people who have ‘copied and pasted’ T&Cs without understanding them and find out too late they are not fit for their business when they need to rely on them.
Our commercial contract solicitors have seen an increasing number of new clients come to us with AI-generated contracts, which are now being put to the test due to a company or shareholder dispute, or simply, a company wanting to change the way it is structured.
Whilst AI can produce commercial documents that appear on the surface to be fit for purpose, the technology cannot fully grasp your specific commercial needs, the nuances of your industry, or the nature of your company. Contracts need to reflect a company’s goals, values, risk profile, and regulatory landscape. AI tools cannot tailor the contract to those considerations, they simply predict what a “typical” contract clause might look like.
An AI-generated contract will include standard clauses, but whilst lawyers consider the use of standard clauses,
AI does not comprehend what is and is not appropriate. This increases the likelihood of including irrelevant or inappropriate terms and, more importantly, missing key terms. Worse still, it may give companies false confidence that their legal risks are covered when, in fact, the contract is not legally sound.
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