A signature locks specific sentences, not the friendly summary you heard on a call. If the draft is silent on timing, payment or what “done” means, you will later have to prove it from chats.
Where to start
Start with the subject. It should say what is sold, leased or delivered, and how acceptance works. “IT services” without a result, milestones or a handover test is a dispute waiting to happen.
What to check
Then money: who pays, when, in which currency, what is a deposit, and whether the other side can change the price alone. Read liability and termination together. A daily penalty with no cap can exceed the contract price in a week.
Money and timing
Also look for what is missing: confidentiality, IP, forum, language, data protection. A missing clause is still a term — the default law fills it, and that default may not favour you. For a cross-border draft, governing law and the court come first.
What this is not
Do not sign a photo of one page. Send the full file in the Legal Nomos cabinet. A short first clarification is free. A typical review of up to five pages starts from UAH 1,500, agreed before work starts.
A checklist before you sign
Read the contract in the order a dispute will be read later: parties, authority, subject, money, acceptance, liability, exit. Check who signs and on what basis. A scan that looks signed in a chat is weak if the person had no authority, or if the annex with the price never made it into the “final” file. If three versions are circulating, sign only the one whose total matches the invoice and whose annexes are actually attached.
Then look for what is missing. A formula such as “reasonable time” or a penalty of a fixed percent per day with no cap moves the risk onto you. Side agreements left in Telegram do not reliably override a signed price clause. For a cross-border text, governing law and the court or arbitration clause matter as much as the commercial deal.
- The subject is a result or a closed list, not a vague industry word.
- Acceptance, deadlines and the effect of silence are written down.
- The penalty has a ceiling and early exit is priced.
- Annexes, page numbering and bank details match the body.
- You are not signing one page photographed from a messenger.
This is a map, not an opinion on your file. A typical review of up to five pages starts from UAH 1,500. Longer papers, English originals and multi-party deals are quoted separately. The fee is fixed in the offer before work starts, after the full file is in the client cabinet.