Clear guides to Washington law, legal aid, and your rights
Contract Law
10 articles in this category
Not every failure to perform is a breach, and not every breach justifies terminating a contract. Here is how material and minor breaches differ, what anticipatory breach means, and what remedies are actually available.
Most contract mistakes are avoidable. Here are the ten patterns that come up most often — from ignoring definitions to missing renewal windows — and what to do instead before you sign.
A systematic checklist for spotting dangerous contract terms before you sign. Covers definitions, scope, payment, renewal, liability, IP, and execution — with explanations of why each red flag matters.
Contract disputes usually start with ambiguity, not bad faith. Here is why they happen, how they get resolved, and what you can do to reduce the risk before one develops.
<p>Somewhere in the contract you signed, there may be a clause that will quietly extend your agreement for another year — or longer — without you doing anything. That is what an automatic renewal clause does. It is not inherently unfair, but it is one of the most reliably surprising clauses peopl...
A limitation of liability clause caps what you can recover if a contract goes wrong — sometimes to a fraction of your actual loss. Here is how these clauses work, what courts will and won't enforce, and what to negotiate before you sign.
A confidentiality clause protects sensitive information shared in a contract. Here is what the key elements mean, how to spot a weak clause, and what to negotiate before you sign.
Most COVID-era force majeure claims failed — not because the clause is useless, but because contracts were not drafted to cover what actually happened. Here is how force majeure works, what courts look for, and what the pandemic taught us about getting the clause right.
A severability clause keeps the rest of your contract intact when one provision is found unenforceable. Here is how it works, when it has limits, and what to look for when negotiating one.
A termination clause defines how a contract can end legally, what process must be followed, and what each party owes afterward. Here is what to look for and what to negotiate before you sign.
