PSA: Check your force majeure clause for pandemic loopholes

I compared my old contract's force majeure with a new one from last week in Phoenix and the old one didn't cover any public health emergencies. Have you guys checked if yours actually protects you if something like that happens again?

3 comments

3 Comments

drews551d ago

Jumped into my own contracts right after reading this and sure enough my old one from 2018 only covered "acts of God" which I guess means my insurance is only good if a giant hand comes down from the sky and cancels my gigs. Felt pretty dumb sitting there realizing a pandemic would just be considered "Tuesday" by comparison. Took me about an hour to dig up my newer template from a client last year and that one at least mentions "public health emergencies" but the wording is so vague it barely covers anything specific. Might just start writing my own clause that says "if the whole world shuts down again we all just take a break and nobody gets mad about it.

wesley63922h ago

Dude have you tried just adding a simple line about "widespread illness or government mandated shutdowns"? I was in the same boat last year and my lawyer buddy told me to keep it short and sweet instead of trying to list every possible disaster. I literally typed out "if more than 50% of events in the region get cancelled due to health issues or official orders, this contract pauses until things go back to normal" and both my clients and I have been way happier with it. It's not fancy but it beats trying to decode those vague lawyer phrases that don't actually help anyone.

waderamirez21h ago

Respectfully, I gotta push back on this one. You're oversimplifying something that can screw you if you don't spell it out clearly enough. That "more than 50% of events in the region" line sounds good until your client argues that only their specific events got cancelled, not the whole region's. I've seen people get hung up on stuff like that because the wording is too loose. The vague lawyer phrases are annoying, yeah, but they're usually vague for a reason - to cover edge cases you haven't thought of. A single sentence feels clean but it leaves too much open to interpretation when tensions are high. Just add a few bullet points so it's clear but still short.