What does your contract mean? How the courts interpret contracts

All too often, a term might seem perfectly clear to the parties when the contract is agreed, but a dispute later arises as to how it is meant to apply in the circumstances that have come about.

If the parties cannot resolve the issue, the court may be called on to interpret the contract. Where the parties have not made themselves clear, the result may then be difficult to predict.

In this second of our updated and relaunched series of contract disputes practical guides, Gary Milner-Moore, Sarah McNally and Steven Dalton consider the court’s approach to interpreting contracts and some practical steps that can be taken to minimise the risks.

You can click here to download the PDF guide or contact webinars to access the archived version of our webinar exploring these issues.

We will be publishing further editions of the updated series of contract disputes practical guides in the coming months. In the meantime, the first edition in our relaunched series (When do you have a binding contract? It may be more (or less) often than you think), and the remaining editions from the original series, can be accessed from the home page for our contract disputes series (which is also linked under “our guides” in the top menu).