Terms Of Business Review Service

We offer a Terms of Business Review Service at a fixed cost: £600 plus VAT.

Without a contract, negotiated with each customer/commercial partner, standard Terms of Business/T&Cs are vitally important to a business limit liability and manage risk – and to clearly record who is doing what.

However, an acceptable general ‘boilerplate’ contract or a standard template set of T&Cs, can quickly age and fall out of legal enforceability. New reported cases coming out of the courts change what is ‘acceptable’ or not, as to standard contract terms. Whilst the ‘limitation of liability’ exclusion clause often receives the most press, new case law affects all types of contract terms, and it is important that contracts reflect legal developments.

Further, not all standard contracting terms reflect what a business wants to achieve, or accurately reflect how that business transacts and interacts with the world. A business may change over time, but its standard paper work can get stuck in the past. Also, what is acceptable for a business to business (B2B) relationship, is not acceptable for business to consumer (B2C).

Even if the contract terms are enforceable and up to date, it’s not uncommon for a party to fall at the hurdle of ‘incorporation’ i.e. have the necessary measures been undertaken to incorporate standard terms into a business relationship.

We therefore offer a ‘Terms of Business Review’ service, which is an objective analysis of your standard terms of business/T&Cs, producing an easily readable report which can be used as the basis for revision/redrafting (if appropriate). This review looks at and reports on:

• Key terms;
• Any relevant standard contract terms which appear to be missing from the contract, which may expose a party to liability or risk;
• Privacy policy and data handling;
• Dispute resolution provisions in the contract, and how those could be applied to seek to protect the contractual relationship;
• The enforceability of key terms: liability clauses and damages clauses in light of our experience in the courts; and
• any specific concerns identified to us about particular contract terms.

As a specialist litigation firm, we have extensive experience in stress-testing standard commercial contracts and terms of business; identifying key risks and liabilities; and advising as to how to strategically achieve client aims. We seek to identify ways in which to redraft a specific clause or part of the terms, to put a business into a stronger position for the future and more accurately reflect the acceptable or exclusion of liability.