Contracts are fluid things that often change even after you reach an agreement with another party. Whether you provide customer services to business clients or have a supply relationship with a company that sources unique materials you need to make a product, your written contract may only be part of your agreement with the other party.
You may have adjusted the number of items that you routinely receive, the frequency of delivery, the deadlines or the detailed expectations for a project after signing the initial contract. Communicating an email about those kinds of changes can actually help protect you if you need to take action against the other person or business due to a failure to fulfill their contractual obligations.
Email or even text messages can provide evidence of a new agreement
You don’t necessarily have to execute a completely new contract when one party to a written contract wants to make some adjustments. However, it is almost always in your best interests to have witnesses for verbal negotiations and agreements or to commit those changes to writing as soon as possible.
The chain of emails showing that you agreed to a different completion date or a text message affirming that you wanted to double your order can serve as evidence of a breach of contract if you are unable to resolve the issue outside of court.
A breach of contract can have negative consequences for your business
Whether you needed to change how a company provided the service for you or other key terms in an agreement, when the other party fails to fulfill that new allegation, your business could incur expenses or losses as a result of the other party’s failures.
In a breach-of-contract lawsuit, you can potentially legally compel the other party to fulfill their obligations to you or seek damages if there are real financial consequences for their failure to follow through on their promises. An experienced attorney can help.