Please sign here.

Regular readers of this blog and Devant clients will know that we're really hot on the use of contracts to prevent companies and individuals from getting into disputes in the future, and to enable them to have productive commercial relationships from the start.

With this in mind, we work with our clients to help them structure great deals that benefit both parties, and to draft readable contracts that reflect their expectations. Recently, though, we've learned that we seem to be missing out one vital step - standing over our lovely clients and making sure they and their own customers/partners/fellow shareholders actually sign their agreements!

Examples of non-signing-induced trauma include:
- dispute over who owns which bits of a custom-developed website
- shareholder dispute leading to director resignation
- dispute over payment terms

...where all of these would have been agreed in black and white if the parties concerned had actually signed the contracts they'd negotiated. And they would now be getting on with running their businesses rather than wasting valuable effort resolving needless disputes.

Of course, there is an argument that even if un-signed, the last draft of the contract to be exchanged could be taken to represent the intention of the parties. But this does not give either party the concrete position that it would have had if signature had occurred - and in order to discover how much weight a Court would give to it, the parties have to actually sue each other. This is a step further than most would really like to go, and if the agreements had been signed the chances are that the party in the wrong wouldn't be trying to push their luck in the way they are now.

So I'm considering offering a new service - the "Signing Ceremony", where one of the Devant team will turn up with two copies of the contract for signature and a pen, and oversee their signature by both parties. Maybe we offer celebratory Champagne to seal the deal. Because getting those signatures is essential to being able to rely on the contract, particularly if you intend to use it to manage the relationship without wanting to go to Court to prove your point.