Why Your Contracts Need a Force Majeure Clause
Because there is no single definition of what circumstances are force majeure, parties to a contract must agree upon what will be considered force majeure for purposes of that contract, advises Elizabeth A. Whitman for Whitman Legal Solutions, LLC.
Writing in the Whitman blog, she says that the parties should work with their attorneys to determine what types of circumstances should be listed given the nature of the specific contract.
“Parties to a contract generally agree that it isn’t fair to require performance of a contract in accordance with its terms if certain uncontrollable or extraordinary situations arise. Therefore, many contracts include in them what are known as ‘force majeure clauses,’ which relieve all parties to a contract from performing under certain extraordinary circumstances,” she explains.
She lists some examples of conditions that might be included in a definition of force majeure.