WHEN YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER THAN YOUR LAWYER
I’m right there with you—sometimes I feel like contracts are written to keep regular people out of the loop on purpose. When I was renovating my last place, I remember getting a 30-page contract from the architect. It was so dense, I swear I needed a nap after page three. There was a section about “force majeure” that sounded like something out of a pirate movie, but it turned out to be about what happens if there’s a hurricane or whatever. Why not just say that?
I get that lawyers want to cover every possible scenario, but at some point, it feels like they’re just making things more complicated than they need to be. I’ve actually pushed back before and asked for a “plain English” summary alongside the legal version. Sometimes they’ll do it, sometimes they act like I’m asking them to rewrite the Magna Carta.
But here’s the thing—I do think some of this is about tradition and maybe even job security. If everyone could read their own contracts, would we need lawyers as much? Maybe that’s cynical, but it crosses my mind every time I’m squinting at another “heretofore aforementioned party” clause.
That said, I have to admit, the one time I tried to DIY a contract (for a landscaping project), it backfired. The guy bailed halfway through and there was nothing in writing about timelines or penalties. Lesson learned: sometimes the jargon protects you, even if it’s annoying.
Still, there’s got to be a middle ground. Why can’t contracts be both thorough *and* readable? It shouldn’t take a law degree to figure out if you’re about to get stuck paying for someone else’s delays. Maybe we’re not naive for wanting things simpler—maybe we’re just tired of feeling like outsiders in our own deals.
WHEN YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER THAN YOUR LAWYER
Why can’t contracts be both thorough *and* readable?
I’ve wrestled with this exact thing on every project. I once tried to simplify a contract for a client—cut out the “heretofores” and all that—and my lawyer nearly had a heart attack. Turns out, some of those weird phrases actually have decades of case law behind them. Still, I always give clients a bullet-point summary in plain English. It’s not perfect, but it helps bridge the gap between legalese and reality. The system’s clunky, but skipping the details can really bite you later... learned that the hard way when a contractor tried to wiggle out of warranty work because I’d left out one line.
