Legalese 5

[TheRambler]

Can you help me translate this paragraph to English?

Neither the waiver by a party hereto of a breach of, or a default under, any of the provisions of this Contract, nor the failure of a party on one or more occasions, to enforce any of the provisions of this Contract or to exercise any right or privilege hereunder shall thereafter be construed as a waiver of any subsequent breach or default, or as a waiver of any of such provisions, rights or privileges hereunder.

As I understand it, I can't quit this contract.

 

[PaulTEG]

That's how it starts ...
refer him to his "inner child", that way there's less chance of him beating whole biker clans to death with the wet end of their own arms. j/k

He's two, he's not going to understand it, unless you have time to explain the roots of the word, oh, look Barney ...

;-)

cigless ...

 

[tgreer]

I had a co-worker with a small child. He told the story of this pre-school aged son continually using the work "sarcastic" in wildly inappropriate ways. The dog was sarcastic. The trees were sarcastic. He simply liked the sound of the word. His mother asked him if he knew what it meant. He didn't. She then realized she'd given herself the task of explaining sarcasm to a 4-year old.

She decided to use a real-world situation. "You know how when you go to pre-school, Suzy sometimes says things like, 'Oh, I really like your shirt!', but you know she really thinks your shirt is stupid? Well, she's being 'sarcastic'". He understood immediately.

A few days later, while taking a trip to the grocery store, a man stole her parking spot. Frustrated, she yelled "Thanks a lot!". Her son asked her why she said thank you to that man. She explained that she was just being sarcastic.

Her son nodded knowingly and agreed, "Yeah, I think his shirt is stupid, too."



Thomas D. Greer

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[craigsboyd]

PaulTEG and tgreer,

I got a good chuckle out of both your posts. Thanks.

SweetPotato Software Website
My Blog

 

[stackdump]

I think legalese is actually designed to confuse, so a member of the public (herein referred to as the party of the first part) does not understand the implications of the party of the first parts association with the vendor (herein referred to as the party of the second part).

The first law of legalsese used in documentation such as "Terms and Conditions" is;

"In the large print we giveth, in the small print we taketh away."

I cant remember where that quote came from, but the best (or worst) place to see this in action is on a guarantee or warranty.

I recently got a warranty with a new DVD. First page, list of benefits in huge size, twirly font, bold colours on a light background; back page, great long list of exclusions in 1pt text, using white text on a light blue background!

I wont be reading it but Im sure the first line will say something like this warranty is void on receipt of the invoice (attached).

 

[Chacalinc]

... great long list of exclusions in 1pt text, using white text on a light blue background!

hehehe... Fortunatelly, in my country there is a law that do'nt let companies to use small text.

Chacal, Inc.