As a small-business owner, you ask clients, business partners, and associates to sign contracts nearly every day. Contracts protect you and your business from liability, detail party responsibilities, and specify dates and financial requirements. You’ll also be asked to sign contracts. Before you sign, however, take a long, hard look at the contract details. Make sure it’s mutually beneficial and seeks to advance your business in some way. Before you sign, consider the following. What Does It Say? A business contract typically includes an offer, consideration, acceptance and mutuality. In other words, the contract asks something of the business owner, specifies remuneration as work or goods are delivered, proof that all parties had a meeting of the...

The good old days of doing business with a handshake and a promise are long gone. It’s indeed a nostalgic idea, but small-business owners today need more than a verbal contract to protect themselves.  While it not only makes good business sense to have all contracts in writing in order to avoid ambiguities, in Pennsylvania the Statute of Frauds requires it in most cases. The Why of It Simply put, your business is not safe from contract disputes, whether the contract was verbal or written. However, a written contract that covers all elements of the deal is much easier to defend if you get sued. It’s common to assume that business agreements with known business associates, friends and even family can be made without a written contract. Disputes between...

Many people feel a pang of anxiety when they consider signing a contract. Business contracts are a necessary part of doing business, however, if you want to protect yourself and your assets. Here are seven business agreements you need to familiarize yourself with if you own a small business. 1. Partnership Agreement     You need a partnership agreement even if you’re starting or operating a business with your best friend. Effective partnership agreements contain details about who contributes what, including how much money is contributed; payment distributions; day-to-day duties; how decisions between partners are made; and expense responsibilities. And it outlines what happens when a partnership is dissolved due to death, illness, bankruptcy, retirement or...

By David DelCollo, Attorney It has been 13 years since the last set of requirements and guidelines was released, but this year, the ISO will be launching ISO 13485:2016. This new release will have a substantial impact on the design, development, production, installation, and delivery of medical devices and related services,-but what exactly will the introduction of these new regulations mean to your organization? The primary requirements and guidelines for medical device designers and manufacturers are established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 162 national standard bodies, including North America and Europe. The main objective of the ISO, as...

By David DelCollo, Attorney Before Your Fear of Donald Trump Drives You to Pack Your Bags and Depart for Lands Unknown, You May Want to Take a Brief Look at the Lives of Some of Our Past Presidents. The political landscape these days appears to be more like a reality show starring Donald Trump than a presidential election. And while some people are absolutely convinced that Donald Trump as president would be the end of the civilized world as we know it, I beg to differ. First and foremost, let me say that I am in no way endorsing Donald Trump or any other presidential candidate for that matter. Rather, I believe that while Donald Trump may have his flaws and failings, he certainly would not be the first to break the mold of our “ideal” American President. Leading...

By David DelCollo, Attorney It is difficult to imagine that the great legal minds of the past could have ever envisioned the practice of law that we currently know. From ancient Greek and Roman times until the days of the old English courts, some of the greatest innovations in the application of contract law was the act of actually writing down one’s intentions, as opposed to a mere verbal “meeting of the minds.” Today, however, contracts are drafted, reviewed, and signed without a piece of paper or a drop of ink and all of this happens at lightning speed as fast as your internet service can provide. While today’s high-tech tools can help businesses run more efficiently, these same tools can also put a company at great risk of winding up in court. Is an agreement...