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 immediatelyas soon as reasonably practicable notify Party B.

what do we think immediately even means, folks? Do we expect it to happen at the very instant — to the microsecond — that the investment policy is formally approved? No? Then within what period counts as immediate?

You might think Party B needs a reasonable amount of time to collect itself, get back to the office, take its rolodex out of the drawer and find its broker’s number, clear its throat and wait for the broker to pick up the line.

If so, you might ask yourself just how different that sense of “immediately” is to “as soon as reasonably practicable”.

See also

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