Contract Law and minors

[4liendud3]

Hi All,

I am in the process of starting up an events management company and my team raised an interesting issue with how contracts are issued.

In order to protect ourselves financially and from any legal nastiness we decided that the best way to run an event would be to issue a contract to the third party (and any other group involved in said event) detailing any particulars regarding that specific job. However, as a lot of our clients are under the age of 18 where do we stand with the enforcement of contracts issued to minors.

I’ve done a bit of research myself into this but I am finding it difficult to unravel and useful information (I have limited experience with law) however I know that in certain cases contracts may be voidable at any time by a minor - which to be honest defeats the object of having a contract in the first place - and that a parent/guardian can be used as a guarantor to work around the previous problem but isn’t always enforceable.

So basically my question to the lovely people of the forum is;

Where do we stand with enforcement?
How can we work around any issues with voidable contracts?
If there isn’t any way of working around voidable contracts, is there a different approach we could take?

Any advice or pointers would be very much appreciated!

Thanks guys =]

[V.Creative]

Originally Posted by Dave Scotford

You as a business or individual cant enforce a contract upon a minor if they fail to comply with terms. However, the same minor can enforce the contract upon you if you fail to comply.

......Ouch, that stung!

[4liendud3]

Yeah I agree that stings a bit! So basically there isnt much point in issuing a contract if that is the case...

Surely there must be some way of working it becuase you can be employed as a minor and that is usually contracted. Also educational institutions issue contracts and they are enforceable (I'm thinking specifically about college...)

[4liendud3]

hehe, no worries! Thanks for your help though! I think you and I have similar understandings on how it works... I just really hope there is someone that has experience in this type of thing in this forum becuase its starting to become a pain in the a$$!