Contract Law For Dummies
by Scott J. Burnham with Joe Kraynak
Contract Law For Dummies
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011941728
ISBN 978-1-118-09273-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-19555-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-19544-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-19547-5 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Author
Scott J. Burnham, a graduate of New York University School of Law, is the Curley Professor of Commercial Law at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. For 30 years, he has taught Contracts at law schools throughout the U.S. and internationally. As a practicing lawyer and consultant on contract matters, he has a good sense of the practical application of contracts principles, and as a prolific writer on legal topics, he has the ability to convey those principles with clarity.
Dedication
To everyone who studies contract law may you grow to love her as much as I do!
Authors Acknowledgments
Thanks to acquisitions editors Michael Lewis and David Lutton, who chose me to author this book and ironed out all the preliminary details to make it possible, and to Larry Garvin, who recommended me for the gig.
Elizabeth Rea, my project editor, deserves a loud cheer for serving as a gifted and patient collaborator and editor shuffling chapters back and forth, shepherding the text and graphics through production, making sure any technical issues were properly resolved, and serving as the unofficial quality control manager. Copy editor Danielle Voirol earns the editor of the year award for ferreting out my typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, and other language foe paws (or is it faux pas?), in addition to assisting Elizabeth as reader advocate. I also tip my hat to the Composition crew for doing such an outstanding job of transforming my text and graphics into such an attractive book. My deepest thanks go to wordsmith Joe Kraynak, who was able to successfully blend my knowledge of Contracts with his knowledge of writing.
Publishers Acknowledgments
Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites
Project Editor: Elizabeth Rea
Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis
Senior Copy Editor: Danielle Voirol
Development Editor: Joe Kraynak
Assistant Editor: David Lutton
Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen
Technical Editors: James P. Nehf, Jeremy Telman
Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker
Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier
Cover Photo: iStockphoto.com/Pali Rao
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Nikki Gee
Layout and Graphics: Joyce Haughey, Christin Swinford, Laura Westhuis
Proofreaders: Melissa Cossell, Bonnie Mikkelson
Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
In The Paper Chase, a TV series based on a 1973 movie about the adventures of first-year law students at Harvard, Professor Kingsfield, the Contracts professor, tells his students the following:
The study of law is something new and unfamiliar to most of you, unlike any other schooling you have ever known before. You teach yourselves the law, but I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush, and, if you survive, you leave thinking like a lawyer.
Getting you to think like a lawyer is the goal of law school, but reaching that goal can seem more arduous than it has to be. When you take the course called Contracts, for example, youll probably find that youre mostly reading cases, and you never see a contract.