Contract Negotiation Handbook Getting the Most Out of Commercial Deals

A good commercial contract is both a springboard and a safety net -- it provides the opportunity to expand and grow your business, but also to protect it if things go wrong. In a tough commercial world, getting the best deal you can is paramount.

The Contract Negotiation Handbook demystifies complex legal principles so that busy businesspeople can quickly and easily digest them. With clear, practical examples and case studies to help illustrate and explain different types of contracts and contractual situations, this comprehensive handbook will help you:

• prepare for negotiations and identify contractual terms
• make sure you have covered the ?springboard and the safety net' -- combining the appealing and less appealing aspects of contracts
• identify the type of negotiator that your counter party is and how that affects your negotiations
• develop an overview of contract law
• devise a negotiation strategy
• identify whether you are in a contractual dispute
• prepare for and acquire the best result out of any contractual dispute.

About the author v

Introduction vii

Part I — The contractual environment

1 Springboard and safety net 3

2 Contracts — what are they? 13

Part II — Doing the deal

3 Preparing to do the deal 69

4 Negotiating — doing the deal 91

5 Terms of contracts to keep an eye on 100

6 Traps for the seller — pitfalls in negotiations 130

7 The telltale signs of the overseller — buyer beware 147

8 The ‘red zones’ 159

Part III — The relationship ends

9 In the contract 167

10 What happens if the contract is breached? 179

11 All good things come to an end — termination of contracts 190

12 Things ended badly — how you know you are in a dispute 194

13 Making peace early 217

14 Getting help to fi x the problem — but the warring parties decide 223

15 Getting help to fi x the problem — someone else decides 234

16 Preparing for battle — getting ready for the hearing 244

17 Preparing the case for hearing 247

18 In summing up 270

Appendix: The cheat sheet 272

Glossary 275

Index 279

Damian Ward is a partner in Home Wilkinson Lowry, an Australia-wide commercial law firm. Damian has written extensively about contract preparation and negotiation, and has a monthly column in Managing Information Strategies (MIS) magazine. Throughout his career, Damian has assisted countless clients to resolve disputes arising from contracts.