![]() My reply has always been the same: if they won’t put it in writing, they didn’t intend to do it at all. Some people don’t want to do that because they are afraid the other side will walk away from the deal due to the specificity. If you expect a certain level of services, spell it out. If they promised something, write it down. Don’t worry about offending the other side. If you expect someone to do something – put it in writing. Most of those consequences could have been avoided simply by writing a clear contract. That sorting – through a series of nasty letters back and forth, arbitration, mediation, litigation – costs an extraordinary amount of time and money, not to mention stress. The only winner in those instances are the attorneys who are hired to sort it all out. This scenario happens more frequently than anyone cares to admit. ![]() And if later the client isn’t happy with how services are going, how does the firm show it fulfilled its bargain? But if the outcome of those discussions aren’t memorialized, aren’t written down in the contract, no one else will ever know. Naturally, you’d expect that the owner of the public relations firm and the potential client discussed these items. A photographer agrees to photograph a wedding.īut offers are never really that simple, are they? What exactly will the public relations do for the client? Press releases? Media contacts? Editorial services? Event planning? Will it be exclusive? Can the public relations firm offer its services to businesses in the same industry? How long is the engagement for? Just an event? Or for a longer period of time? How much will be paid? How often? An electrician offers to wire a new home. A public relations firm offers to provide its services to a potential client. The offer and acceptance are what the purpose of the agreement is between the parties. Contracts are made up of three basic parts – an offer, an acceptance and consideration. If there was one piece of advice that I would give to every person entering into an agreement: make sure it plainly says what you’re agreeing to. Too many people think that contracts need to be nearly unintelligible in order to be enforceable. ![]() It says the, uh, ‘The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.’ How do you like that? That's pretty neat, eh?” Trying to comprehend a contract, Groucho says: “Now pay particular attention to this first clause because it's most important. And when I was younger, I thought that all contracts were like that famous scene from A Night At The Opera by the Marx Brothers. I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since fifth grade. ![]()
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