Notice period - holidays

[northernladyuk]

It gets very complicated with unilateral and bilateral contracts and will all get lost in legal speak but there is some form of obligation within the contract to do the work offered and the client will pay if the work is done.

I would imagine if a contractor is using holidays as a way to circumvent his obligations the court won't be in his favour. They tend to favour the party that proves loss. They will take a different view if it was a pre-booked holiday and it's just unfortunate the client has just poorly managed the planning. I guess it comes down to the details of the case. If the contractor is in a new gig by week two of the notice he isn't serving it's going to be pretty obvious what the intention was and looks pretty much like breach.

My current contract has no explicit or implicit obligation to do work.

[northernladuk]

My current contract has no explicit or implicit obligation to do work.

As I say, it get's very complicated and will take a legal expert to give an answer but I thought the fact we had entered in to a bilateral contract gives some obligation in the type of contract without having it explicitly mentioned in the contract.

What is a 'Bilateral Contract'

A bilateral contract is a is a reciprocal arrangement between two parties where each promises to perform an act in exchange for the other party's act. Each party to a bilateral contract is an obligor (a person who is bound to another) to its own promise, and an obligee (a person to whom another is obligated or bound) on the other party's promise. A bilateral contract specifies a duty to act in exchange for another party's duty to act.

I can't believe for one minute a court will side with a contractor who is using a thinly veiled 'holiday' to evade contractual notice period obligation.