We lawyers at McGrath and Spielberger, PLLC deal with contracts every day. Most of those legal agreements have at least one time deadline, while some contracts have numerous deadlines. Contracts, including business contracts, may have other legally important time periods which aren’t exactly a deadline.
An important aspect of contractual deadlines is whether “time is of the essence”. One of our attorneys will provide insight into that concept in a different article.
A wise approach to professional deadlines is “If it’s an important deadline, put it in the contract.” Keep in mind it’s a team approach; your attorney may not be able to know of a deadline which is specific to your circumstances. You always want to be proactive about sharing such information and helping to ensure it is covered in the contract.
Here are some common types of contractual deadlines.
- Services must be complete by a certain date.
- Product delivery deadlines.
- Payment due dates.
- Commercial landlord’s delivery of leased space and related deadlines such as Tenant’s open for business date. For examples:
- Landlord shall deliver possession of the Premises to Tenant within 30 days of this Commercial Lease’s Effective Date; this is the “Delivery Date”.
- Tenant must be open for business within 180 days of the Delivery Date; this is the “Open for Business Date”.
- Notice to terminate or renew deadlines. For examples:
- Company must notify Service Provider at least 30 days before the end of this contract term if Company wishes to terminate the Agreement.
- Business Affiliate shall provide written notice to Company at least 45 days before the end of the calendar year if Business Affiliate intends to renew the Agreement for another 1-year term, which would commence that forthcoming January 1.
- Cure of breach of contract. For example:
- Upon notice from Owner to Contractor that Contractor is in material breach of this Agreement and what constitutes the breach(es), Contractor shall have 10 business days to cure the material breach(es).
- Conditional deadlines. For example:
- Consultant must complete the Services within 120 days after Company provides Consultant with the Data.
- “Within a reasonable time” (period). Be careful with this one! For example:
- Independent Contractor shall return all of Firm’s materials within a reasonable time after the contract with Firm ends.
Don’t hesitate to contact us for contract law services, such as drafting, editing, analyzing, and/or negotiating.