Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New Jersey
This is a general legal question. Thanks for answering.
Will you be held liable for any contract you signed? For example, if I signed a contract with a friend without reading it because I trusted him/her, but the contract contains clearly silly/unfair terms that I did not know about because I did not read it carefully, even though I was given the contract to read. For example, terms like you agree to give your car to me for free for no reason whatsoever.
Is such a contract valid? Are you liable for what you sign no matter what?
1 Answer from Attorneys
To be valid and binding, a contract must meet certain requirements. Part of a contract may
Be valid, legal and binding and other parts not. Regarding you giving
the other person something for "free", that part may fail because a valid contract must have what is termed, "consideration". That is,
each party must give up something in return for what the other person is giving or doing, even if the consideration is only a promise to do something
(or not to do something) in return for the other party promising to do (or not do) something in return. Attorneys learn in detail what it takes to form a contract along with
what other terms should be included in a contract to protect each party and to
make the contract fair. In addition, the nature of the performance or the type of property or things involved in the contract also are important in drafting avalid contract. For these reasons
and many more, it is extremely important for anyone entering into a contract to have it prepared or reviewed by an attorney BEFORE
It is signed or becomes enforceable.
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