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Six questions to ask yourself when limiting liability

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This article covers six key things to consider when negotiating the limitation provisions in your contract.

  1. In practice what are the risks to the parties?

A crucial first step is thinking about the losses that each party could feasibly be faced with if things go wrong. This step helps frame the discussions and can take a lot of the heat out of negotiations.

Once this process is complete, it should be much clearer where you can be flexible and where you should insist on protection.

  1. What is the right level for any cap on liability?

The clause often limits the liability to the contract value. This is often justified on the basis that a party’s potential liability should be no more than what they can get out of the contract.

While common, this limitation can, and often should be pushed back on. The damage a party can cause the other is often greatly more than the contract value and it can be unfair for the innocent party to take the hit. This issue often comes up in the context of professional services, where part of the point of getting the professionals involved can be to ensure a high-value project goes well.

One approach that can work well is linking the cap on liability to the amount of insurance the supplying party is contractually obliged to take out. Alternatively, the cap can be increased to a higher multiple of the contract value, or separate caps introduced for different types of loss.

  1. What, if anything, should be excluded from this cap?

There are some liabilities that cannot be excluded by law, and it is common for these liabilities to be expressly accepted within a limitation clause. The most commonly applicable ones are:

  • liability caused by the party’s own fraud or dishonesty;
  • liability for injury or death caused by negligence or lack of reasonable care; and
  • liabilities under the statutory terms implied into sale of goods and supply of services contracts.

It is also common to exclude specific risks from the cap. What is appropriate depends on the specific facts, but parties often accept uncapped liability for criminal activities, deliberate default or, more debatably, breaches of indemnities (see below).

  1. Will the limitations actually be enforceable?

English law puts quite a few restrictions on limitation clauses, particularly as such clauses can be abused by the stronger party in negotiations.

Whole tomes have been written on the subject of enforceability, with what counts as enforceable depending on matters such as whether the recipient is a consumer and the type of contract involved. In short, however, to help ensure the clause is enforceable, the limits should be reasonable, clear and visible. Well drafted contracts will also include what is called a ‘severance’ clause to aid this.

  1. How should I deal with financial losses?

It is common to see provisions excluding “indirect and consequential losses”. This is quite often put in on the basis that this will mean that financial losses (e.g. loss of profits, loss of anticipated saving, damage to goodwill) are excluded. This is a misconception; indirect and consequential losses are losses that are not the natural results of the breach in the usual course of things but arise from a special circumstance of the case. Financial losses can be direct losses where they are the usual, predictable results of a breach.

If you want to exclude financial losses it is better to specifically set the specific types of losses in the document.

  1. What about indemnities?

Indemnities are clauses requiring one party to compensate another for a specific type of loss.

It is relatively common to give indemnities for certain third-party claims (e.g. a claim brought by a third party that the software provided under a contract infringes that third party’s IP). Unless there is a particularly good reason for giving an indemnity for a specific risk, however, you should otherwise resist giving an indemnity as far as possible. An indemnity invariably increases your liability beyond what would ordinarily be the case.

Conclusion

The negotiation of any limitations of liability requires a deliberate and thoughtful approach in ensuring protection from both liability and loss under a contract. For advice on your liability under a contract or to draft these clauses please contact our specialist team here at Onyx Solicitors, on 0121 268 3208 or email us at info@onyxsolicitors.com with your query.

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