Found a weird loophole in our client contracts that made me nervous

I was going through our standard agency contract last night, the one we copy paste for every client, and I spotted something that caught me off guard. There's this clause about unlimited revisions that basically says 'as long as the project scope hasn't materially changed.' But nowhere does it define what 'materially' means. I looked up three different legal blogs about it and found out courts in Illinois, where we operate, have ruled both ways on that exact language depending on who the judge is. One case from 2022 let a client demand 47 revisions because the agency couldn't prove the scope shifted. That's insane to me. I ran it by our part time lawyer this morning and she basically shrugged and said it's a grey area. How is everyone else handling this vague wording on revisions? Are you sticking to strict number limits or just hoping for the best?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_adam1d agoMost Upvoted

Buddy of mine got burned on that exact clause, cost him two months of free work.

fiona_young1d ago

Man, that really sucks. It's brutal when you realize you gave time and effort for nothing because of some fine print. Stuff like that can make you feel pretty bitter about the whole game.