Why are parts of contracts written in uppercase (capitalized) letters?

Question

In legal documents and contracts, often one or more (but not all) sections are written in all uppercase letters. Why? What does it signify and does it have any legal impact?

Answer 1

Usually, uppercase letters are used because some statute requires that certain items in contracts be conspicuous. Many times the statute itself will require the language used to be in a certain size of type. The failure to do so renders the provisions void.

Answer 2

In English all perfect names and the 1st letter in any sentence are capitalized. That way, once you're examining you recognize that it rather is the commencing up of a sentence or the commencing up of a attractiveness. I whilst used as a private pronoun is taking the area of my call and is for this reason capitalized. In a common sentence you will see "this may be a sentence that Allah wrote." 2 I's, neither of that are capitalized however the 1st letter of the sentence and the right call "Allah" are capitalized. All languages have diverse platforms so it is not a usual rule. In Russian that's impossible to tell if the be conscious for I is capitalized, Thai would not have bigger and decrease case letters, French use capitals for names yet decrease case for "I" different than the place it starts off a sentence. It easily isn't non secular, selfish or questioning approximately self satisfaction. those feedback are merely expressions of your lack of information.

Answer 3

Under US law, certain clauses need to be made "conspicuous". The most commonly seen examples of such clauses are disclaimers of warranty.

In olden days, typewriters could only easily make something conspicuous by using ALL CAPS. The law, actually, allows for just about anything, from color, to enboldening, to putting into a box.

But, even in today's multicolored and multi-fonted age, we can still copy-paste and get rid of the formatting. If you think about it, CAPITALS are the only thing you can do to text that you can be pretty sure will not be lost if you paste only text without formatting.

Hence, capitals prevail, despite the reality that us humans see a block of all caps text and immediately skip over it, doing exactly what the law was designed to stop us doing!

Answer 4

I have seen uppercase letters used in two contractual scenarios:

1. Sometimes certain words are capitalized as a point of emphasis. This makes it more difficult for a party to argue that he/she did not see the word in question.

2. Also certain words are given special definitions on under a contract. For example, if I am drafting a film location agreement for a location at 123 Apple Street, it is repetitive to type '123 Apple Street' everytime, so they will define it as '123 Apple St (hereinafter "LOCATION"). From that point on, every reference to '123 Apple Street' will be defined as LOCATION. Some attorneys choose to capitalize these specially defined words.

Answer 5

No legal effect - they want to make sure you don't argue you never saw that clause by making it obvious.

Answer 6

tradition. traditional flourishes to astound and amaze the common people. we little people. they do it all for us. isnt i swell?