Need an Attorney to help your Maryland or DC business? Contact Raymond McKenzie at 301-330-6790 or ray@mckenzie-legal.com

If you are forced to file suit in Maryland for breach of contract, do not let a poorly drafted contract hurt your chance of prevailing. Do not lose a case that you should win simply because of faulty contract language, language that could have been avoided had you retained an experienced Maryland business attorney to assist.

A contract drafted in Maryland with little or no input from a Maryland corporate lawyer can fail to include several necessary components that help to make a contract legally enforceable. These deficiencies can be fatal to your business’s chance of prevailing in a lawsuit. As a result, make sure that an experienced Maryland business attorney reviews your contracts, and that such contracts address, at minimum, the following five points:

1. Jurisdiction: If you want the ability to sue in Maryland courts, your contract must contain language where the parties submit to the jurisdiction of Maryland state and/or federal courts. This language allows you to sue a business in Maryland courts, even if the company is not incorporated in, or have offices in, Maryland. Without this language in your contract, you will most likely be forced to sue the corporation in its home state. Suing out of state can be significantly more expensive and time consuming.

2. Choice of Law: A Maryland choice of law provision states Maryland law will be used to decide the dispute. Many non-lawyers confuse choice of law with jurisdiction, and interpret the phrase “Maryland law will govern this contract” to mean that a dispute has to be heard in Maryland. That is not the case. Rather, this clause simply means that regardless of where a dispute is heard, whether in Maryland Circuit Court or Virginia or anywhere else, Maryland law will be used to decide the matter.

3. Non-compete and non-solicitation clauses: Do you want to prohibit the other party from competing with you entirely, or just stop them from soliciting your clients? If the former, then you are in need of a non-compete clause, which must be limited in geographic scope, limited in duration, and narrowly defined to protect only the interests of your business in order to be enforceable. Maryland courts will typically enforce reasonable non-competes. However, a non-compete that overreaches will often be struck down. If the latter, then you need a non-solicitation agreement, which allows the other party to compete with you, provided they do not solicit your current or former clients. A non-solicitation clause need not have geographic or time limitations so long as it only forbids the solicitation of your clients by the other party.

4. Default and Termination provisions: Make sure that your contract’s default and termination provisions are clear with regard to: a) what breaches may be cured and what breaches cannot be; b) what the time period exists for any cure; and c) whether amounts due over the life of the contract still owed even if the contract is terminated.

5. Dispute Resolution: Choose the type of dispute resolution system that you feel best fits your business. Mediation, arbitration and litigation are options, and they can be used in compliment of one another. Regardless of what method of dispute resolutions you choose, always allow your business the option of filing for emergency injunctive relief in Maryland court when necessary to avoid irreparable injury to your business.

Need an Attorney to help your Maryland or DC business? Contact Raymond McKenzie at 301-330-6790 or ray@mckenzie-legal.com

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