Mistakes in Contracts

Paper Summary:

Generally speaking, a contract is an agreement that is enforceable through the courts. Clearly, in order for all of the parties to any given contract to achieve the desired goals of the agreement, everyone involved must be informed of the circumstances and facts surrounding the agreement. It is important to capture all of the elements required for its execution when crafting the instrument. People - even lawyers - are only human, though, and intentional and unintentional mistakes and misrepresentations are sometimes made in contracts that can have profound implications for all of the parties involved. To gain a better understanding of what these implications might be, this paper provides an overview of contract law, and what the authorities have to say about contracts containing mistakes and misrepresentations. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.

Outline
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Mistakes and Misrepresentations in Contracts
Elements Required for a Contract to be Valid
Conclusion
References

From the Paper:

"The research showed that contracts are a special type of agreement between two or more parties that is enforceable in court. In order for a contract to be enforceable, though, the three key elements of consideration, capacity, and legality must be satisfied. To meet the legality element of this formula, a contract must be free of misrepresentations; however, mistakes can and are made all of the time in contracts and these can be remedied if all of the parties agree to it. In many cases, though, courts will enforce contracts even if they contain mistakes if the contract was made in good faith and satisfies the other requisite elements. Misrepresentations, though, generally represents a death blow to any contract if it is determined that one or more parties intentionally misled the other party or parties, and mistakes based on such misrepresentations will not be a legitimate defense for this misrepresenting party or parties."

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