Analyzing Contracts

Name: Analyzing Contracts
Author: Michele Hagan

Learn to analyze a contract

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 4 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

How exactly do you go about analyzing your contract? Here we'll go over how to evaluate a contract, as well as tips for understanding and reviewing the contract. In business and personal matters, contracts are used to define the obligations, responsibilities and recourse available to the involved parties. Whether you're a business owner, an employee or a private individual, it's important to have the skills and knowledge to successfully evaluate, analyze and negotiate all kinds of contracts. What if you wanna buy a house or an office building? You're likely to encounter agreements for purchasing, an agency disclosure or a property disclosure. What if you wanna hire someone to make a website for you? In that case, you'll probably need a software or web designer agreement. Some of these contracts can be more than 25 pages long. Where do you even begin? That depends on how effective you are at evaluating contracts. Here's how to decide what kind of contract is right for you. Contract type: First ask yourself this: What do you need for your particular situation? Contracts are going to look different depending on what they cover. For instance, business buy sell invoices generally appear on preprinted forms. Commercial leases may only require you to fill in the relevant information like dates, rental amounts and lease terms. However, confidentiality, franchise and non-compete agreements can be written as a letter of agreement. Contracts can also vary in terms of how easy they are to understand. While there are many that you can navigate and evaluate on your own, you are likely to encounter some filled with unfamiliar legal terms or clauses that you may have trouble understanding. Those contracts are best reviewed or edited by a lawyer. If needed, you can use a pre-made form or templates for your contract. Using pre-made contracts has some advantages like reducing the time needed to draft the contract and helping you become familiar with the terms in your industry. If you decide to use a template contract, make sure that you modify and tailor it to fully encompass your agreement so that it is properly understood by both parties, but be careful about using contracts you download from the web. What happens if you use a contract that was written by someone who lives in an area with different laws? For example, take Ben. He lives in Nevada and wants to start up his own business there with his partner Now who lives in Delaware. Now prints out a contract for Ben to sign so that they can file their LLC. But since Now uses a contract from his home state, they both accidentally pay higher filing fees. If they had used a contract from Nevada, their filing fees would have been much lower. Something like this is a relatively small mistake, but bigger ones, like getting the quantity for a product shipment wrong, need to be handled by a lawyer. This could mean having to pay litigation and travel costs for yourself, your lawyer, or both. If you do use a contract you've found online, make sure it complies with your local laws. That way you'll avoid losing time and money on litigation. If the other party agrees to it, you can use whatever type of contract you want for your situation, but it's important to remember that once you sign on the dotted line, every word and clause can, and will be enforced against you. If you claim later on that you didn't understand parts of the contract, you'll still be responsible and accountable for whatever you agreed to. You should expect that you won't be relieved from the contract and it won't be canceled either.

Intermediate Provider : Michele Hagan 4 Lessons · 12m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

This course presents methods that you can use for evaluating, understanding, and reviewing a contract. It introduces different types of contracts that you may encounter. It also discusses legal language that may appear in particular types of contracts.

What You'll Learn

Recognize different types of contracts you may encounter
Apply methods for evaluating, understanding, and reviewing a contract
Consider the legal language used in different types of contracts
Interpret legal language that may appear in particular types of contracts
Review contracts using a structured approach

Key Takeaways

The course presents methods for evaluating, understanding, and reviewing a contract.
It introduces different types of contracts that you may encounter.
It discusses legal language that may appear in particular types of contracts.
Lessons progress from contract evaluation through understanding the contract to reviewing it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn to recognize different types of contracts and how to consider the language of different types of contracts.

What does this course cover?

It presents methods for evaluating, understanding, and reviewing a contract, introduces different types of contracts you may encounter, and discusses legal language that may appear in particular types of contracts.

What topics are included in the lessons?

The lessons cover Contract Evaluation, Contract Evaluation Part 2, Understanding the Contract, and Time to Review.

What skills does this course help build?

It supports skills in Contract Analysis, Contract Interpretation, Contract Negotiation, Contract Law, Contract Preparation, and Contract Review.