Entering into a contract confers various rights and duties to its parties. Those rights and duties are enforceable in Florida’s civil courts. A valid and binding contract must comply with certain elements. Those elements consist of mutual assent demonstrated by an offer and acceptance, sufficient consideration, legal capacity, and legality. For purposes of contracting for goods between businesses, Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code usually controls.
Offer and Acceptance
A contract might be in writing, or it might be implied by the conduct of the parties. It might even be oral on the basis of one party acting on the promise of another party, especially if they have a history of doing business together in the past.
Legal Consideration
There must be sufficient consideration for a contract. It’s usually in the form of a certain sum of money. When the market price of widgets is set at $1 each prepaid, and the buyer sends the manufacturer only $300 for 3,000 widgets, no contract exists. There has been a failure of consideration.
Legal Capacity
This is almost always an issue of whether a party was of sound mind to enter into a contract. A five-year-old child doesn’t have the capacity to enter into a legal contract. Neither will an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who is being cared for in a nursing home.
Legality
Contracts can only be enforced if they’re legal. A hitman isn’t allowed to sue the person who hired him because he didn’t pay the hitman after a job was done.
Preserve and protect yourself and your business. It’s likely to operate in your best interests to retain a business law Orlando-based attorney for help during any stage of contract negotiations. He or she might also be able to represent you if you need to declare a breach of contract or file an appropriate lawsuit in court.