It’s important not to let all of this blur into one. If you take your eye off of the ball, and let the details of a contract slip past you, you could find yourself liable for far more than you’ve budgeted for.
A good business lawyer can check the contracts you sign and make sure not only that they are compliant with law, but also that they cover exactly what you want them to. This is too important a step to overlook: whatever you may have discussed previously, once you’ve signed a contract you are locked into that version of the agreement (unless you can prove you have actually been deceived, voiding the contract). Not putting your contracts before an expert’s eyes before signing them is the definition of a false economy.
A lawyer can review all kinds of contract for you, checking your rental agreements for premises won’t see you evicted for specious reasons and with little warning, that your customers giving you their data online are consenting properly, and even conducting an IR35 Contract Review to make sure your employees and consultants are correctly covered and compliant.
If you don’t have access to an in house legal team, you can consult high street lawyers, or you may opt for the increasing trend of using an online law firm. These offer greater flexibility. You can keep costs down by ensuring you only pay for the service you require, rather than an escalating series of billable meetings, and work via email and phone to make sure you get things done your schedule.
However you get it done, using the services of a lawyer is far superior to simply checking a contract yourself. Taking a lawyer’s advice means you are protected against problems you don’t have the expertise to predict. It has the secondary bonus of giving you something to fall back on if there is something unexpected in the contract the lawyer misses: you are no longer responsible for this lapse. Your lawyer is. This gives them an incentive to defend you from the consequences all the more vigorously and even possibly gives you an avenue for compensation when necessary.
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.