'Best Efforts,' 'Commercially Reasonable' and Other Terms No One Understands

In this article, the authors explore why vague contractual terms are routinely used, explain how they have been inconsistently interpreted by the courts, and offer some practical tips to minimize the havoc ambiguous terms can wreak.

13 minute read June 01, 2016 at 11:57 AM
By
Grant Esposito and Jessica Kaufman
'Best Efforts,' 'Commercially Reasonable' and Other Terms No One Understands

Contracting parties routinely use terms like “commercially reasonable” and “best efforts” to describe future performance, sometimes for strategic reasons, but usually because the demands of the deal do not permit the time needed to negotiate what steps will actually occur, or because the parties cannot agree and prefer to table the issue for another day, hoping it will not become a problem.

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