Nail down the terms of the contract before the contract is breached

So, lets say you have a contract with, oh lets say your spouse. We don’t handle family law here, but let’s say it’s a prenup.  Imagine if you can, that you have stepped out on your spouse during your relatively brief marriage, more times than you have fingers and in a desperate attempt to remain married you offer to pay more money for a longer term of service, er marriage. 

Timing is everything  – and offering 60 million for 2 more years to your spouse after many ” transgressions” is not the time to renegotiate that contract.

Similarly, in the commercial world, negotiating the consequence for breach of contract needs to take place before the contract is breached.  It is not enough to meet someone, agree to provide a service for a fee, shake hands and walk away. 

While in that ” honeymoon ” stage, you need to have a contract signed that clearly sets out what happens if either party doesn’t do what they say they would do.   Pay a lawyer to create this contract, it is much less expensive to do it at that point, than to pay a lawyer to litigate it after the breach of the contract.

Of course, getting back to my prenup example, I have a funny feeling that lawyers are going to make a lot of money off that situation.

Inga B. Andriessen,  Sr. Lawyer