--- title: When Avoiding Uncertainty Takes Precedence Over Making Contracts Shorter description: Shorter is better in contracts, except where it isn't. image: https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-05-06%20123116.png --- # When Avoiding Uncertainty Takes Precedence Over Making Contracts Shorter 6 May 2024 ![Screenshot 2024-05-06 123116](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-05-06%20123116.png?width=2165&height=930&name=Screenshot%202024-05-06%20123116.png)I’m all for making contracts shorter. I’ve demonstrated over and over that applying *A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting*’s guidelines results in contracts that are not only way clearer but also significantly shorter. But there’s a context where I add more to a contract than you might expect. Namely, when contract boilerplate provides for a given mechanism and there’s a good chance that not addressing how that mechanism might play out could lead to uncertainty. One example of such a context is indemnification provisions. It’s routine for contracts to include an obligation to indemnify but otherwise say little about indemnification. When something happens that might fall within the scope an indemnification obligation, that kind of bare-bones approach can lead to fights over what indemnification covers. Litigators can be left prodding the corpse of the indemnification verb (usually *indemnify* or *hold harmless* or *defend*, or some combination), hoping it will disgorge its secrets. For example, *Fillip v. Centerstone Linen Services*, LLC, No. CIV.A. 8712-ML, 2014 WL 793123, at *4 (Del. Ch. 27 Feb. 2014), involves a fight over whether an obligation to defend required the indemnifying party to advance defense costs. I would much rather be specific about how indemnification would play out. For an example of what that looks like, see [this blog post](https://www.adamsdrafting.com/my-indemnification-language/) about my indemnification language. Another example is a notices provision. If in a contract you provide for the parties to notify each other, what constitutes effective notice? If you don’t address that in the contract, it might be up to a court to decide for you, relying on moldy old default rules. Go [here](https://www.adamsdrafting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-06-105551.png) for a notices provision created using an Adams Contracts template, with the user opting for a comprehensive version, and go [here](https://www.adamsdrafting.com/my-materials-on-contract-boilerplate/) for my writings (and one video) on notices provisions. In each of those two cases, my approach can add half a page to your contract. In the case of indemnification, what’s at stake makes that half a page worth it. In the case of a notices provision, that half a page is straightforward—it doesn’t impose a significant cognitive burden. In both cases, the extra language isn’t speculative. Instead, it addresses matters that one could reasonably expect to result from the initial choice to include that kind of provision. There’s one context where the extra language isn’t worth it: when not enough is at stake for you to bother with it. But the assumption underlying Adams Contracts is that something meaningful is at stake. ## Search our blog ## Categories - [Templates (27)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/templates) - [Adams Contracts (12)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/adams-contracts) - [Process (9)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/process) - [Artificial Intelligence (7)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/artificial-intelligence) - [Technology (7)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/technology) - [Boilerplate (2)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/boilerplate) - [Document Assembly (2)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/document-assembly) - [Blog (1)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/blog) - [Change (1)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/change) - [Confidentiality Agreements (1)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/confidentiality-agreements) - [Ken Adams (1)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/ken-adams) - [Teaching (1)](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/tag/teaching) [See all](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/when-avoiding-uncertainty-takes-precedence-over-making-contracts-shorter#) ### Subscribe to Our Newsletter ## Read On [![](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Custom%20Tailoring.jpg?width=352&name=Custom%20Tailoring.jpg) ](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/why-adams-contracts-is-the-unstandard) ### [Why Adams Contracts Is “The Unstandard.”](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/why-adams-contracts-is-the-unstandard) The contracts ecosystem has long been a copy-and-paste hellscape, but in the past couple of years... [![](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-files_logo-horizontal-colored-white-background.png?width=352&name=logo-files_logo-horizontal-colored-white-background.png) ](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/say-hi-again-to-adams-contracts) ### [Say Hi (Again) to Adams Contracts!](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/say-hi-again-to-adams-contracts) Last month, on the occasion of the Association of Corporate Counsel annual meeting, I announced... [![](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-02-20%20211816.png?width=352&name=Screenshot%202024-02-20%20211816.png) ](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/giving-people-ever-more-sophisticated-ways-to-rummage-in-their-contracts) ### [Giving People Ever More Sophisticated Ways to Rummage in Their Contracts Won't Fix What Ails Contracts](https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/giving-people-ever-more-sophisticated-ways-to-rummage-in-their-contracts) I saw Bob Ambrogi's post on LawSites ([here](https://www.lawnext.com/2024/02/clausebase-expands-to-provide-all-in-one-legal-drafting-and-reviewing-within-word.html)) about the Belgian document-automation company [...](https://www.clausebase.com/) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ken Adams", "url" : "https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/author/ken-adams" }, "dateModified" : "2024-05-06T19:55:58.721Z", "datePublished" : "2024-05-06T16:56:36.000Z", "headline" : "When Avoiding Uncertainty Takes Precedence Over Making Contracts Shorter", "image" : [ "https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-05-06%20123116.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/blog/when-avoiding-uncertainty-takes-precedence-over-making-contracts-shorter", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://adamscontracts.legalsifter.com/hubfs/SIFT-Rebrand-2025/logo_color_positive.svg" }, "name" : "LegalSifter, Inc." } } ```