Contract Extension/Legally Binding email

[joebloggscontractor]

Help please!!

Below is obviously hypothetical

I am currently within a contract, and have been offered an extension.
I have said yes verbally, and have sent an email literally stating "i accept the dates, and rate". I am still within the original contract period

Now my question is whether this is a legally binding contract? my opinion was that until I sign paperwork, it is not legally binding, but am a little confused

[xoggoth]

Can't say for certain, but pretty sure an electronic communication is legally just as binding as a written contract. As is a verbal statement for that matter, although the obvious problem with the latter is proof.

However, not sure the distinction is worth bothering about. Even if you have a written contact there will almost certainly be various clauses that will allow one party to withdraw. I have had a three month contract before and been out the door the next week, along with about eight others, when they renegotiated the project end date. One place I was at, a new contractor turned up and was immediately told to go home again. Even if the terms have been breached you can only sue for actual losses, not always worth it.

In same position myself. Just refused contract extension on strength of emailed offer and my emailed acceptance. (Christmas makes waiting for all the written stuff a bit problematical). It could all go wrong but that's just part of contracting.

[bfg]

Help please!!

Below is obviously hypothetical

I am currently within a contract, and have been offered an extension.
I have said yes verbally, and have sent an email literally stating "i accept the dates, and rate". I am still within the original contract period

Now my question is whether this is a legally binding contract? my opinion was that until I sign paperwork, it is not legally binding, but am a little confused

If the e-mails were digitally signed then they are as binding as any signed document as they are almost impossible to tamper with or forge without access to the senders private key. If they are not they can be used as evidence of intentions but can be disputed, simply because they are so easy to fake.

If you want to know how legally binding the agency thinks plain text e-mails are simply amend your copy of the e-mail and add £50 per hour to the rate in the one the agency sent you and you willl soon find out.

[BlasterBates]

Any form of comunication, verbal, e-mail, parchment, horses head in the bed etc. are legally binding, but I wouldn´t get hung up about it, no-one is going to chase you up, especially if you inform them fairly promptly you´re going to leave, and even if you do leave after signing, as long as you aproach diplomatically, throw in a cynical sob story for example, should be no problem.

[xoggoth]

I always find insanity is a good excuse

[OwlHoot]

Any form of comunication, verbal, e-mail, parchment, horses head in the bed etc. are legally binding

I guess in the circs though, if you add the phrase "subject to contract" to the end of the email then it isn't legally binding until you've signed on the dotted line.

[AtW]

Chances are that even if its legal binding, the contract to which it is bound allows them to do anything they want anyway - even getting rid of permie during the trial period is a no brainer - I've seen people being out of job on the first day they turned up for it.

[xoggoth]

I said that first!

[AtW]

I said that first!

What you said lacked eloquence and simplicity that were in abundance in my response

[xoggoth]

But your reply lacked class cos you are a common moustachioed ghastly foreign sort of person, and like all replies from foreign sorts, although I daresay you try your best according to your own miserable lights, of dubious moral integrity. Mine was a proper English answer, a shining example of the sort of moral certainty and implicit intelligence that has been the envy of lesser breeds since the late Pleistocene.