lavina (Proprietor) 04 March 2011

Standard Form Contract for larger amounts

I am a web designer (sole proprietor). I want to appoint agents (not employees) across India, to market my websites and web applications. Regarding contracts with clients, i have 2 options:

a. Authorise the agents to enter into contracts on my behalf

b. Develop a standard list of terms that clients read and sign, while placing an order

Option (b) seems faster, safer and more convenient. But I was wondering whether standard terms, signed by only one party, would be legally valid - especially in cases where the value may be in few lakhs.

Please let me know what would be the best option for me.

Thanks.

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sanjay kumar (BE/ LLM in Corporate Laws) 04 March 2011

Whether standard form of contracts are real contracts is a matter of discussion and debate. The SFC have been termed as "contracts of adhesion" because the other party has no other option but either "to take it or leave it". However, there have been cases where courts,particularly in USA, have ruled in favour of SFCs.

Nevertheless, you can draft an SFC taking utmost care that none of the terms may be taken as unreasonable by the courts later on and ensure that agents cannot prove that they took the contract because there was no other option.

I can help you in drafting your SFC. You may send the details to sanjaykumar0203@gmail.com, if you wish.

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