All of that aside, there is one self-evident way you can protect yourself when making deals is this: make sure that you exchange your deal points in writing. \u00a0This sounds so elementary that it doesn’t need to be said but both beginners and experienced businesspeople alike run into trouble with this issue.<\/p>\n
Often, people try to rely on verbal arrangements to prove the existence of a contract with varying degrees of success (and failure).\u00a0 In the end, the best evidence of an enforceable contract is a written exchange between the parties containing all the basic elements of a contract.<\/p>\n
The basic elements of a contract you ask?\u00a0 Here they are:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Offer<\/em> – an offer from one party to another for the sale of a good or service.<\/p>\n Acceptance<\/em> – agreement by the recipient to the terms of offer.<\/p>\n Consideration<\/em> – the price being paid for that good or service.<\/p>\n The price must<\/u> be stated in the writings.\u00a0 If no price is defined, you have no contract.\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n In this day and age, it is increasingly less common that the parties take the time and expense to set out a formal written contract which is fully executed by both parties.\u00a0 Often times, there is an exchange of emails, iMessages or text messages, or sometimes voice mail messages.\u00a0 (NOTE: never try to form a contract by voice mail!)\u00a0 Contracts can be formed in this way, but often relying on email exchanges presents a totally different set of concerns we\u2019ll address another time.<\/p>\n A quick call to your attorney at the beginning of a commercial deal (or using a purchase order form or invoice form available through a number of off the shelf packages) can avoid a lot of headaches and stress later on.<\/p>\n Moral of the story: A clearly written and signed agreement protects all parties\u00a0in the deal.<\/p>\n Bryan Tuk is the owner of the Tuk Law Offices based in Allentown.\u00a0 Bryan\u2019s practice is focused on small businesses, nonprofit organizations and arts organizations.\u00a0 You can reach Bryan by email at <\/em>bryan@tuklaw.com<\/u><\/a>, or follow Bryan on Twitter<\/a> and FaceBook <\/a>@TukLawOffices.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nClick here for more articles by Bryan Tuk<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"… Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,1342],"tags":[3706,29,1621,3707,3708,3704,3710,1351,3709,3705,3711],"class_list":["post-18623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-law","tag-acceptance","tag-allentown","tag-bryan-tuk","tag-consideration","tag-contracts","tag-corbin-on-contracts","tag-law-firm","tag-lawyer","tag-legal","tag-offer","tag-tuk-law-offices"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3336.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}