No one likes to think about any deal or business relationship going bad and ending in a dispute. Fortunately, small business owners should have someone else worry about deals going bad--that is what lawyers are for, right? The boilerplate language in contracts, all those provisions...
Nearly every small business client or prospective client I have counseled has experienced the pain and annoyance of not getting paid on time (yes, even me). I am sure every small business owner hates looking at the aged invoices report and seeing lots of money...
Contracts form the backbone of all commercial activity. Every business has a contract with its clients. Some contracts are very basic, such as retail establishments: The business will give you X when you pay $Y. That is a form of contract-just a largely unwritten contract. Other...
Master Service Agreement, Basic Ordering Agreements, or other contracts which call for multiple task orders, project orders or similar structures may not actually be an agreement without those task orders. Many creative professionals and even other companies often use Master Service Agreements or other similar...
Contract are often complex beasts, particularly the "boilerplate" provisions. So-called boilerplate has grown more complex over time and often the terms are not negotiated. In the past, dispute resolution provisions typically involved only choice of law and venue provisions, where the parties agree the law...
This is the third in an occasional series of posts examining terms in Commercial Lease Agreements. While other posts have examined terms more commonly found in lease agreements, this post is going to look at a non-standard provision, a relocation clause. If a commercial lease agreement...
This is the second in an occasional series of posts relating to commercial lease agreements. This post will examine two of the most important provisions in a commercial lease: Term Length Term and Rent. The two examined provision also allow a look into a common...
As a general rule, I tell all my clients that every business relationship they have should be documented in a contract. It is a simple rule and sounds as if it would be easy to follow. But it is not always so easy since in...
For small business owners, particularly those involved in retail activities, the single most important document the owner may ever sign is their commercial lease agreement. But many commercial lease agreements, being assembled over time by the landlord's lawyers, are replete with ambiguities, drafting errors, and...