Put it in writing....

As lawyers, we are train to put it in writing... most of our clients come to see us to ensure that they have a written copy of the deal. Actually, I had a client who came to see me this morning - briefly, he had a deal with one his business partner regarding the profit sharing of a contract, however; they never took the time to write properly the terms of the deal (as he said, they were trying to save money on lawyer ...) . They actually got the contract - You are probably asking yourself ... so what's wrong ??? In addition, they did almost $200,000.00 of profit on this deal. As you might imagine by now, the business partners did not agree on the final figures relating to the profit sharing AND THEY HAVE NOTHING ON PAPER.

I advice my client that he have a strong position, however, in order to succeed; he will need to spend a substential amount of money and spend the next few years in Court. He could try to settle and hopefully his soon to be "former" business partner will accept. However, it is really unsure, all this situation could be avoid, PUT IT WRITING !!!! In order to save costs, please draft the general terms of any agreement and ask your lawyer to review it.

In the event that you do not have enough money to spend... keep it simple, stupid (KISS) draft a one pager outlining the terms of of your deal/contract, and both parties shall sign it - just make really simple sentence to ensure that it is clear.

I do agree that sometime it is inconvenient and long, but remember once it is on paper, IT IS MUCH EASIER TO PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF THE DEAL AND/OR CONTRACT...

Has we say in French: "les paroles s'envolent, les ecrits restent"