My franchise agreement had a clause I ignored for 18 months

Signed a franchise deal in Austin back in 2022, never read past page 20 because my lawyer said it was standard. Then last month the franchisor hit me with a non-compete enforcement after I started a side gig selling coffee beans online. The clause was buried in section 7, and my own attorney had flagged it initially but I told him to move on. That ignorance cost me $4,000 in legal fees to even negotiate a settlement. Anyone else skimmed a contract only to have a buried provision blow up later? What did it end up costing you?

2 comments

2 Comments

theas2820h ago

I learned that lesson the hard way back in 2015 with a vendor contract. My business partner was the one who read the fine print, but I told him to quit worrying. Six months later we got hit with an auto renewal clause that locked us in for another year. Cost us about $2,800 to buy our way out. Now I read every single page myself, even the boring parts. I also make a list of anything that sounds odd and ask the other side to explain it in writing before I sign. That extra hour of reading has saved me a lot of grief since then.

evan_davis20h ago

Jeez, that's rough. People skim contracts all the time and think they're fine, but these companies bury the wild stuff on purpose. I get that lawyers say it's standard, but standard doesn't mean safe for you. Spending four grand just to talk is insane. I bet you read every page twice now, right? It's a stupid tax we all pay once.

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