New year’s resolution: Update your contracts By David Jarrett, a Vancouver lawyer with Bernard LLP
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David Jarrett
lthough many people have abandoned their new year’s resolutions hours or even minutes into a new year, there is no better time to resolve to review your organization’s contracts and terms and conditions. Periodic reviews can ensure they are effective and properly protect your best interests. Depending on the nature of your work, your contracts may include bills of lading, contracts of affreightment, towing contracts, ship-handling contracts and other carriage documents. You may also have terms and conditions that you say apply to all of your business dealings. In addition, you may use purchase orders in the course of your business. All of these should be periodically reviewed to ensure that they contain clear terms and reflect the current state of Canadian law and are consistent as a whole. Ideally, contracts clearly set out each contracting party’s obligations for simple things such as payment terms and interest rates, as well as division of responsibilities for risk and insurance. If your contracts have not been reviewed in a very long time, they may contain antiquated language, references to statutes that have been repealed or replaced on unenforceable interest rates on 14
B.C. Tugboat 2020
