Lawyer Contract Law Antwerp
“Good agreements make good friends” is sometimes suggested in the vernacular.
This is a truism and applies all the more so in legal matters.
We live in a highly legalized society where all stages of human life are regulated by law.
This also applies to the drafting of agreements. Since a contract is considered the law between the parties, it is of the utmost importance to be very precise in its drafting and to be assisted by a contract law attorney.
Authority
A first issue concerns that of authority. Not just anyone can enter into an agreement about anything. For example, certain categories of people are legally “incompetent.”
Such people cannot enter into legally valid contracts. Think e.g. of minors, extended minors, protected persons under guardianship….
Agreements drafted by an incompetent person are not legally valid, whatever the content of the agreement.
Wills
Not all agreements drafted by a legally competent person are legally valid. For example, an agreement may be afflicted with a so-called will that causes the agreement to be invalid. The common feature of all wills is that they are a negation of consent.
A will could be said to exist when there is an unintentional discrepancy in a party to a contract between the expressed will and the will as it would be if that party had given his consent freely and knowingly.
The classic defects of will are the following:
- Deception: deception consists in the fact that at the crucial moment the first party was not aware of what is being done to him, otherwise different terms would be demanded.
- Mistake: One speaks of a mistake when there is an involuntary error in which the party committing is unaware of exactly what he is committing to. The difference with deceit is that in deceit, one of the parties knowingly puts the other party in a state of error.
- Violence: Violence consists of forcing a party to enter into an agreement. This can be either physical or moral violence.
Content of the agreement
When a competent party validly enters into an agreement, the question arises as to what the content of the agreement should be. Especially in this area, the assistance of a contract law attorney is essential.
Often the mistake is made that parties do not assume the so-called “worst case scenario.” Thus, it happens very frequently that certain possibilities are overlooked so that parties end up in a stalemate once this contingency occurs.
A lawyer contract law will obviously be able to assist you in this regard as lawyers, when drafting the contract, always ask themselves what could go wrong in the context of the performance of the contract.
Contractual penalty and damages clauses
A very important aspect of an agreement are the contractual sanctions provided for in the event that one of the parties does not fulfill its obligations. These sanctions must be precisely defined on the one hand and, on the other hand, must not be too far-reaching. After all, a judge may rule that a certain sanction is excessive and should not be applied.
Competent court and applicable law
Finally, especially in international matters, it is of utmost importance to provide in the contract which national law will be applied when there is a dispute between the parties as well as which courts will have jurisdiction to hear this dispute.
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It is rightly very clear from what precedes that drafting an optimal legally valid contract is by no means child’s play.
It is of the utmost importance that you seek the assistance of an experienced contract law attorney.
Peterfreund & Associates has more than 20 years of experience in contract drafting.
Do you have questions about contract law? We are located with our law firm in Antwerp.