On December 1, the Law Office of Blair & Bondurant, sent Shantrel a letter, via

Question

On December 1, the Law Office of Blair & Bondurant, sent Shantrel a letter, via overnight delivery, offering to employ her to review oil and gas related documents related to a case being litigated by Blair & Bondurant for the price of $10,000. In the letter, Blair & Bondurant stated that Shantrel had ten days to accept. On December 5, Shantrel sent an e-mail message that stated, “The price for the oil and gas document analysis seems too low. Would you consider paying $15,000?” Blair & Bondurant received the message without responding immediately. The next day, Terrance, also an oil & gas document reviewer, offered to conduct the document review for $9,000. On learning of this offer, Shantrel immediately e-mailed Blair & Bondurant, agreeing to do the work for $10,000. Blair & Bondurant received this message on December 7. Explain why Shantrel and Blair & Bondurant do, or do not, have a contract.

Explanation / Answer

Contracts to be legally valid necessitates that all parties must be in agreement after an offer has been made by one party and accepted by the other and in return something of value must be exchanged such as cash, services or goods. Furthermore State regulations often require written contracts for real estate transactions or agreements that will last for more than one year.

The fundamental rule of contract law is that a legal agreement subsists when one party makes an offer and the other party accepts it which indeed can be done either orally or in writing. However in day-to-day business the apparently uncomplicated steps of offer and acceptance can indeed sometimes become reasonably complex.

For instance sometimes an offer isn't promptly and explicitly accepted the other party may want to think about it for a while or try to get a better deal. However before the other party accepts your offer you might change your mind and want to pull out or modify it. Postponing acceptance or revoking an offer as well as making a counteroffer are common situations that may lead to uncertainty and disagreement.

Thus to effectively lessen the dispute probability it’s very crucial and significant to understand that unless an offer includes a stated expiration date it eventually remains open for a reasonable time. However what's reasonable would indeed vary depending on the kind of business transaction and precise factual situation existing.

Furthermore to effectively ensure there’s no room for doubt as to when the other party must make a decision the most excellent way to make an offer is to include an expiration date. Thus if you want to accept someone else's offer the best way is to do it as soon as possible while there's no doubt that the offer is still open. Keep in mind that until you accept company or individual who made the offer eventually can also revoke the offer.

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