Practice area
Business & Contracts
The best time to deal with a contract problem is before it’s a dispute.
Overview
Contracts get signed when everyone is optimistic
That’s the problem. The document gets its real test later, when something nobody planned for happens.
Who gets paid if the project runs six months late? Can the other side walk away early, and on what notice? Who owns the work product? What happens if performance becomes impossible? Whose law governs, and where is a dispute decided?
All of that is cheap to address before signing and expensive afterward. We draft, review, negotiate and interpret commercial agreements for businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals.
Drafting and review
- Commercial agreements
- Service agreements
- Consulting agreements
- Independent contractor agreements
- Purchase and sale agreements
- Shareholder agreements
- Partnership agreements
- Joint venture arrangements
- Confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements
- Licensing arrangements
- Commercial leases
- Settlement agreements
- Amendments, renewals and extensions
- Guarantees and indemnities
- Termination agreements
A proper review isn’t proofreading. The questions are what obligations you’re actually taking on, where the risk sits, what happens if the other side doesn’t perform, and how you get out if the business changes.
We’ll also tell you when a clause is unusual, which is often more useful than telling you what it means.
When a live relationship starts going wrong
Most contract problems surface before anyone is thinking about litigation. A payment is 90 days overdue. One side has quietly stopped performing part of the job. The two of you read the same paragraph differently.
This is the point where a carefully written letter or a negotiated amendment can end the whole thing. It’s also the cheapest legal advice you will ever buy for that file.
- Contract interpretation
- Amendments and variations
- Notices and demands
- Overdue payment and accounts
- Performance and delivery disputes
- Termination and exit
- Guarantees being called
- Breach and the options that follow
Cross-border agreements
Once the other party is outside Canada, a few things stop being boilerplate: governing law, jurisdiction, the dispute resolution clause, currency and payment terms, and whether a judgment or award can be enforced where that party’s assets are located.
This is familiar ground. A large part of Saeeq Shajjan’s earlier practice was commercial work between parties in different countries, which is different from a purely domestic contract. It is not harder, but it is harder to fix later.
Worth reading first
All insightsGeneral information only, not legal advice. For advice about your situation, book a consultation.
Practice areas
Other ways we can help
Book a consultation
Talk to us about your business matter.
Tell us briefly what is happening. We will check for conflicts and respond promptly.
- shajjan@shajjanlaw.ca
- Consultations by appointment, in person or by video.