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Business Law

A guide to Contracts Law

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Article written by HPB Lega, legal news & articles

legal gavel and a business contract
legal gavel and a business contract

A contract is an agreement between two or more people who have a lawful objective to do something or purchase a product in exchange for a corresponding exchange of value.

For a contract to be legal they will have to fulfil the following elements:

Offer and acceptance – A contract will become legal when an offer by one party is accepted by another party.

Intention to create legal relations – Both parties must decide to enter a legally binding agreement

Consideration – There should be value for the promise of the other party. In this case the price should be something of value, but it doesn’t have to be monetary.

Legal capacity – Not all people are free to enter a contract for it to be valid. For example, minors, people who are mentally impaired, will involve problematic consent.

Consent – Each party must enter into the contract at their own free will and with proper understanding.

Illegal and void contracts – Certain types of contracts are illegal according to common law and therefore will not be binding. For example, contracts that involve committing a crime or fraud etc.

There are two main forms of recovery (compensation) when a contract is breached. Firstly, The party can receive damages or money to the value the party would have received if the contract had not been breached. Secondly, the party can request specific performance or that the other party must carry out their obligations under the agreement that was made.

 

Litigation holds, what you need to know

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A litigation hold is a directive from a body of law or authority to preserve certain documents matching a certain criterion, due to a pending investigation. Lawyers will get letters which state a “Litigation Hold Letter” or “Litigation Hold Notice,” both of which mean the same thing. However, you should also make your IT personnel aware that they must preserve certain documents

Triggers

Sometimes some events should trigger an instinct to preserve documents. Even before the lawyer sends a request to hold certain documents, if there is the word of a lawsuit or pending litigation, advise your technical department to immediately put litigation holds on the people you suspect are involved.

Time

You, the lawyer, and anyone else associated with the pending legal proceedings are all liable for sanctions if there are any delays on the part of preserving evidence. If due to a delay, key evidence is no longer available, everyone concerned is liable to sanctions and even charges like contempt of court. An important point to note is that the technology that powers email, document storage, and communications should allow indefinite holds.

Collect everything

Do not just put holds on emails. Consider the scope of the request to include all data within the time frame in the letter. This could mean everything from data storage, travel data, and even printed documents that the person in question submits to other departments.

Things to consider when drafting Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)

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A Non-Disclosure Agreement or an NDA is a contractual agreement between the party sharing information and the party receiving information. The agreement specifies that the information can is shared in certain circumstances but not outside the purposes specified in the NDA.

Put it in writing – The NDA should be a written document with all parties signing their consent.

Proper legal names – The legal names of all parties should be correct.

Limitations of use and purpose – The NDA should define the information, its purpose and how it is used. The NDA should also state the liabilities that will be imposed on the parties if a breach occurs.

Excluded Information – Information that is excluded from the NDA should be stated. For example, information that is available to the public, information that is available to the receiver or from a third party who is not under an NDA can be excluded.

Duration – The period that the information will be maintained should be stated.

Requirements for safeguarding information – The party disclosing the information will have to ensure that the information is protected from misuse.

Remedies for breach – Remedies could include an injunction to restrain the breach.

Proprietary information identified – If a document is deemed as confidential, this should be stated on each page of the document.

Confidential information after the agreement ends – This section describes how the information is handled after the agreement ends.

Enforceability – Proof is essential to support a case in the event of a dispute. Therefore, all confidential documents should be marked and meeting minutes documented at important events.

 

How to Choose a Construction Claims Preparation Specialist

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Written by: Lyle Charles

When it comes to choosing the right construction advisory services for your substantial claims, you’ll want to choose the right firm or individual that will represent you to the very end. Claims aren’t something to be taken lightly and can escalate in little to no time. In this guide, you will find out how to go about choosing the right type of consultant without having to stress out.

 

Background Check

 

Now, it may seem like it’s relatively easy to choose out a consultant and figure that he is the one. Realistically, each type of construction claims consultant has a specific type of specialty that they are well versed in. For instance, if you have a claim that has to do with delay, it’s important that you choose a seasoned consultant that works well with construction claims – and has a high success rate. Do some background research on the person that you are looking into. Does his website showcase a lot of his skills? Does he have testimonials from reputable sources that claim he performs what he says he does? Does he have positive reviews from past clients that he as worked with?

 

Phone Interview

 

When you’re paying for a consultant, which doesn’t come cheap by the way, you’ll want them to fight tooth and nail for you. This means, they should always be in communication with you whenever an update is brought up, and they should always be an outlet when it comes to questions that you may have. Call his office up and request to speak with him directly. Be sure that you have a list of questions written down so you know what to specifically ask about. Many consultants have a strong sales personality to them, meaning they can convince clients to sign up without having a strong background in claim consultations. Don’t be deceived by this, always take the safe route and ensure that you have a safe and comfortable feeling when talking to him. Also, it never hurts to ask if you can speak to someone that can vouch for him. Honesty should always be the most respectable policy when it comes to legal cases of this matter. You don’t want to end up paying a large sum to someone that does half the work that you expect them to do – or even worse, have them hand over your case to a consultant in training. You want your construction claim preparation to be done right, and this can only be accomplished through trust.

Start-ups and New Immigration Law of the USA

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For the last time there are a lot of posts about immigration reform of the USA, which was accepted by Senate on June 27, 2013. But we see one and the same issues which are discussed everywhere.

In this article I will try to recite the main idea of this big law (almost 1200 pages) in short, which concerns IT specialists and especially start-ups.

First of all, I have to admit that this reform can really simplify the procedure of issuance of visas for agricultural workers, medics, IT specialists, graduating students of the American universities or colleges and representatives of other hard-to-get professions.  Those people, who have got their professions in American Universities, will get green-cards out of turn, even avoiding the scoring program. The only condition is the presence of an employment offer. (more…)