The Santa Clause!

Definitions are important, and not just in legal terms. It comes up in many every day aspects of our lives, and a failure to be clear can be fatal to our plans.

If I ask the taxi company to pick me up, I need to define where I am, and what time I want to be collected.

If I tell my son to stop shouting, I need to tell him that I mean for the rest of the night, and not just at 1.15 am (I so missed him when he was away at Uni – I did. Honest!).

If I say I’d like dinner when I get home, I need to say when I’m expecting to be back.

In law, almost everything we do needs to be defined or clear.

If you say you’re going to deliver at your standard rate, the other side need to have a reasonable way of knowing/finding out what that rate is.

Or if you have a deadline, you need to say not only what that deadline is, but what happens if it’s not met.

Even Santa is in difficulties in the definitions front, as I discovered this week due to my latest instructions from a new client.

One of my grandsons (I bet you didn’t know I was old enough to have THREE of them) wants to know what the definition of being “Nice” is, and how does Santa decide (this kid is going to go far!).

His other grandmother had tried to fob him off with some vague implication that it was a kind of magical intuition, but he wasn’t fooled, so he came to ask the expert.

I explained that in the absence of a clear definition of what “Nice” (or indeed “Naughty”) meant, it leaves it open to us to argue. Sometimes a degree of ambiguity can mean it’s not worth the other side’s while to argue. After all (I reasoned) is Santa really going to risk going head to head with me over a few Christmas presents.

Whilst I realise that an answer like that might indeed put me on Santa’s naughty list (or even over his knee!) it certainly gave me hero status with the younger members of my family, so it was well worth it.

It’s also a good reminder of the dangers of doing deals on a handshake or by text/WhatsApp – brief can be good, but too brief can leave you vulnerable.

If you are in difficulties on contracts, whether with Santa or anyone else, you know where to find me.

In the meantime, from everyone at Kleyman & Co Solicitors, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas, full of only nice things.

Kleyman & Co Solicitors. The full-service law firm. You define me.