Avoid Contract Disputes with Flat-rate Contract Review

(Newswire.net — February 6, 2020) Lehi, UTAH — The number one reason small business owners end up in costly and time-consuming lawsuits is due to the use of contracts that were not properly drafted or reviewed by a professional. The typical contractual lawsuit can drag on for more than two or three years with legal and court costs exceeding $150,000. Spending money on an attorney to draft and review contracts will always be a wise investment. A Utah-based law firm has now made it easier for small businesses to have their contracts reviewed by a lawyer by charging a flat-rate fee and eliminating the hassle of meeting a lawyer face to face.

“Contracts are a way of life for small business owners,” says business attorney, Dana Ball. “Whether you are being given one to sign or you’re asking someone else to sign one, the fact is contract disputes lead to costly litigation far too often. Small business owners are rushed for time, excited about new business opportunities, or assume the contract they’re being asked to sign won’t affect them negatively.”

Entrepreneur Magazine lists failure to use an attorney to review contracts as one of nine common mistakes made by small businesses. Says Ramzy Ladah, CEO of Ladah Law, “A lot of solopreneurs and partnerships mistakenly believe that they do not have the same legal obligations that bigger enterprises have. They believe that legal issues will only arise as they scale, and they can always bring in an attorney later on.”

Many small business owners will download free on-line forms and assume they have sufficiently covered all their bases. But according to Ball, every contract needs to be specific and unique for the business. Business owners should consider the following questions to protect their business:

• Do you care about protecting your trade secrets and intellectual property?
• Are you concerned with confidentiality, non-competition, non-solicitation, and exclusivity?
• Are all the promises in the contract mentioned in detail?
• Are there terms that are vague, ambiguous, or missing?
• Is the contract fair and balanced?

Careful consideration of all aspects of your business is the difference between hiring an attorney to review a contract or you assuming the terms you find in a template will provide adequate protection.

“When we draft a contract, they are different for every single client,” says Dana Ball. “I start with my own template, and I don’t know of one circumstance over the last 20 years where I could take that template and simply put in the names, the date, basic information, and print it up and call it good. Those documents have to be tailor-fit to your type of business and your management style, or it’s going to set you up to fail.”

The sad reality is no one worries about a contract until a problem arises. Then each word in the contract will be scrutinized to determine who wins. Putting all the details into a formal, written agreement will give you peace of mind that your business is protected.  Get legal advice BEFORE you sign a contract.