Terms of business

We know how important it is for you to do business on your own standard terms and for you to understand how the terms apply and when you can agree to vary them. We work with you to prepare plain English terms for business to business or business to customer engagements that you understand and can work with. By providing you with insights into your risks and the practical effects of changes to your standard terms on your business we make sure you understand what your contractual obligations and expectations are.

As part of our drafting and commercial retainer services we offer regular training for business owners, sales and customer relations teams and finance staff on what you can negotiate and what you should not change in your contracts.

We don’t just help particular business sectors and accessible and dynamic lawyers draw on their experience across a range of businesses to help you achieve your business aims in practical, commercial contracts.

The main issues that typically arise when preparing and using standard terms of business are:

1. Accurately describing the goods or services being provided and setting delivery dates for those. We can structure your contracts so that it is easy to amend the goods and services but retain all of the main terms.
2. Warranties that can be given or expected in relation to the supply of goods or services. We can advise you what is commercial, reasonable and achievable by your business.
3. As a supplier or manufacturer, it is crucial to limit your liability under a contract; our lawyers help you understand what needs to be limited within your field of business and then prepare appropriate limitations and exclusions of liability for your standard terms.
4. Termination provisions and the right to give notice vary hugely in contracts. We work with you to give your business security of term or flexibility to terminate depending on your business needs.
5. Force majeure was known as a ‘boilerplate’ clause and largely ignored, but the recent pandemic has pushed into focus the need to pause contracts and sometimes cancel them. We can advise you about business interruption and then draft sensible commercial terms to address ‘force majeure’.