[TriLUG] Re: [GoLugTech] legal question

[Marc M]

I agree wholeheartedly, I have gained a real education by reading a
lot of comments based on so many varied experiences and knowledge. 
Thanks again to everyone.

Marc


On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:15:21 -0500, matusiak <dave at matusiak.org> wrote:
> This has been one of the coolest threads I've seen in a while.  Great
> opinions and a lot of good advice!  Just goes to show the breadth of
> knowledge (beyond the purely technical) bestowed upon the TriLUG
> community.
> 
> Thanks to all for sharing.  You are helping the whole group with such
> info.
> dave m.
> 
> On Mar 24, 2005, at 8:41 AM, Rick DeNatale wrote:
> 
> > Actually the particular proposal/practice I was commenting on was
> > changing the contract and hope that the other party wouldn't notice
> > before signing. My point is that this makes determination of whether
> > the contract was actually accepted muddy, just as would evidence that
> > a contract MIGHT have been altered after signing.
> >
> > If the contract ends up being litigated, and it is discovered that
> > terms have been althered to the benefit of one party, and only that
> > party has intialed the changes, the evidence of both parties having
> > agreed to the altered terms is much weaker, and there is some question
> > of the sequence of the signatures and the alterations. A court may
> > well find that the one-sided alterations constitute an offier rather
> > than a part of the contract.
> >
> > In contracts to which I've been a party, the process has always been
> > to carefully annotate the acceptance of each part of the contract.
> > This has meant that each page was numbered, and initialed by both
> > parties, and each alteration was also intialed by both parties. This
> > is in addition to both parties signing on the dotted line.
> >
> > You might (or even probably would) get away with such a tactic, but if
> > the employer really wanted to push things in the future, you might
> > also get a nasty surprise. If you really care about the changes, you
> > are much better off  bringing them to the attention of the other party
> > and getting agreement on paper.
> >
> > On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:19:29 -0500 (EST), William Sutton
> > <william at trilug.org> wrote:
> >> The proposal was not to change the verbage /AFTER/ the employer
> >> signed.
> >> It was to change the verbage /BEFORE/ both parties sign.  If the
> >> employer
> >> doesn't like the verbage, he can tell you so.  If he doesn't look
> >> over the
> >> contract to make sure everything is to his satisfaction before
> >> signing it,
> >> then he didn't do due diligence.
> >>
> >> Now if you have people altering contracts /AFTER/ signing, you have
> >> problems.
> >>
> >> William
> >>
> >> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005, Rick DeNatale wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:46:06 -0500, Christopher L Merrill
> >>> <chris at webperformanceinc.com> wrote:
> >>>> Marc M wrote:
> >>>>> PROBLEM for them.  OTOH, striking a line through some things (with
> >>>>> initials), is a nice user-friendly way to deal with them.  Most
> >>>>> people
> >>>>> don't realize they have that right -- customizing the terms of the
> >>>>> deal!
> >>>>
> >>>> I've done this with more than one employer.  I didn't mention it to
> >>>> the
> >>>> HR person...I just did it and handed it back to them.  I'm not sure
> >>>> they
> >>>> ever read it.  Probably just checked the back page to see if I
> >>>> signed.
> >>>> If they did see my deletions, nobody mentioned it to me.
> >>>
> >>> IANAL but I have been involved in a few contracts and I've watched
> >>> all
> >>> of the episodes of "The Paper Chase" several times.
> >>>
> >>> Contract modifications normally have to be intialed by BOTH parties
> >>> in
> >>> order to be effective.  As Professor Kingsfield said a contract is a
> >>> "meeting of minds."  If push came to shove, I'm not sure what the
> >>> courts would make of it.
> >>>
> >>> Consider the shoe being on the other foot. If such uni-lateral
> >>> changes
> >>> were kosher, what would stop your unscrupulous employer from making
> >>> his own alterations after you read and/or signed the contract?
> 
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