This is part of a series of articles on transactional contracts issues by Prof. Michael L. Bloom and students in the Transactional Lab & Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.
Lawyers are perpetually troubled with the question of the “battle of the forms.” Exchanging documents, each purporting to be the governing contract, can leave uncertainty as to when a contract is formed and which terms prevail. Typically, in the context of purchase orders this conflict arises when each party sends the other party a form contract, neither expressly agrees to the other’s form and the parties begin to perform.
