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From time to time, parties that enter contractual relationships involving real property find themselves in circumstances where the document of conveyance or encumbrance, such as a vesting deed or a deed of trust, contains an improper legal description. In the case of the purchase and sale of real estate, this can leave parties with a… Read More

While litigation can provide individuals and entities with the necessary mechanism to pursue valid and well-founded claims, some parties, unfortunately, use litigation to intimidate and frustrate others. Sometimes, litigants or their attorneys will use the court system towards these less honorable ends despite lacking a sound basis for their lawsuits. In these cases, the opposing… Read More

Parties often grant legal rights by way of written deeds. A deed affecting real property typically encumbers or conveys that property. In Washington State, parties may convey real property by way of a variety of deeds.   The most common conveyance deeds in Washington State include Statutory Warranty Deeds, Bargain and Sale Deeds, and Quit… Read More

Washington State affords great flexibility to parties that want to enter into a contractual arrangement. Indeed, in Washington State, parties to a contract do not have to create a written contract to have an enforceable agreement. Of course, oral contracts often create confusion and leave parties open to expensive litigation that they could have avoided… Read More

Buyers have many considerations when purchasing a home, including how to structure an offer, how to address financing, whether to have an inspection contingency, and more. Perhaps the first consideration that springs to mind, however, in the process towards purchasing a home is how much earnest money a buyer wants to put down in order… Read More

Welcome to part three of the ongoing series on common contract terms, with articles previously written here and here about indemnification and integration clauses, respectively. The topic for this post shifts to a discussion of severability clauses. Severability clauses, like integration clauses, often reside within the “boilerplate” provisions found regularly in contracts ranging across multiple industries and subjects. In other… Read More

In my most recent blog post, I discussed indemnification, one of many regularly seen provisions found in numerous types of contracts notwithstanding their diversity of subject matter. While parties may or may not negotiate indemnification provisions into their agreement, so-called “boilerplate” clauses find home in contracts with even greater frequency, and concerningly, often without due… Read More

Our world is full of contracts:  construction contracts, consulting contracts, retail contracts, employment contracts, settlement agreements, and, well, writing the list down on a stack of papers might result in a stack so thick that it would cover the distance from our Earth to the Moon. Despite covering an unimaginably wide variety of subject matter,… Read More

When going through the stress of purchasing a home, a title insurance policy can feel like an afterthought.  I have previously written about the importance of reviewing and fully understanding your policy of title insurance here and here, and far from a rote part of the purchase process, securing a policy of title insurance has significant implications.  Though… Read More