Promptly

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Where an obligation is expressed be performable “immediately”, do we lose anything if we yielding in favour of “as soon as reasonably practicable”? Chicken lickens may be aghast, but your old contrarian pal says no.

In the event that Party A makes any material changes to its investment policies it shall be obligated to immediately {{{2}}}as soon as reasonably practicable notify Party B.

What do we think immediately even means, folks? Do we expect poor benighted Party A to be in fundamental breach should it fail at the instant — judged by some kind of atomic click — that the alteration to said investment policy is formally approved?

No? Then within what period does counts as “immediate”?

You might think Party A needs some time to collect itself, canter back to the office, fish the Rolodex out of the drawer, find Party A’s number, clear its throat, wait for Party A to pick up the line and exchange some human pleasantries before imparting this vital news. If so, you might ask yourself just how different that sense of “immediately” is to “as soon as reasonably practicable”. Not very, is your correspondent’s opinion.

“Immediately” might look severe, but it has a handsome economy quite lacking from “as soon as reasonably practicable”. A prose stylist might feel forcing such an inelegance on an already ungainly contract to be an unnecessary step. But it is not a hill that many negotiators would die on.

See also

• The difference between practical and practicable.
• As soon as possible but in any event not later than