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From: ed kliman (no email)
Date: Tue Aug 17 1999 - 09:38:43 EDT
[SNIP]
>Would a written contract have been of benefit, or is it more of a hopeful
>gesture when it comes to really having recourse for boat work gone wrong?
elizabeth:
the oldest adage in the legal profession is "a contract is only as good as
your ability to enforce it." as a professional musician for thirty years
and a paralegal for twelve, i have some experience with contracts and their
application.
basic rule of thumb: if you can't afford to alienate someone who does
questionable work on your boat (i.e. your brother or your boss), waving a
contract around isn't going to help matters any. if you're not concerned
about that, or the possible risks outweigh any risk of strained relations,
cover your butt by getting something in writing. verbal agreements or
having some form of "understanding" are very hard to use as leverage,
either in or out of a court of law.
caveat emptor: in texas, we tend to like doing business on a handshake,
and for me, that works 95% of the time whether i've got a contract or not.
that said, i have had my trust victimized by former friends and even
relatives when i didn't have something on paper and the wheels came off of
whatever project was involved. like a gun, having one and not needing to
use it is always your best option.
good suggestion: some people are scared by legal-looking documents. the
word contract also implies mistrust to some people. lay out your basic
mutual understanding of the terms involved in a "letter of agreement" which
will have both signatures on it. it should lay out terms, work, money and
a basic recital of what you both understand to be involved. it's less
formal, less threatening and still keeps everybody honest, or at least
close to honest.
i hope this helps and please excuse the length of this post, but i see too
many people victimized by that bad 5% of "we the people" to avoid this
subject. diogenes needed all the help he could get, eh?
yours in the quest for soul and solvency,
ed kliman
on the hard in austin, texas
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