Prior notice

Towards more picturesque speech™ Go Premium George Orwell on plain English | SEC guidance on plain EnglishPlain English Anatomy™ Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb | Preposition | Conjunction | Latin | Germany | Flannel | Legal triplicate | Nominalisation | Murder your darlings Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Plain English Drafting Metaphor Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Chicken lickens can have fun with this one. A “prior” notice must be given before the event in question, right?

But what if the notice is given afterward, but is expressed to have retrospective effect? You may wish to strike someone who asks such a stupid question, for such a person is indeed worthy of a walloping, but it does happen. Spotted, negotiated into a prime brokerage document — no doubt granted at length by an exasperated negotiator who was ultimately not prepared to die in a ditch about it:

“Unless otherwise agreed, we, acting in good faith, may change the terms applicable to any loan by giving you prior written notice (where reasonably practicable to you (such notice not to have retrospective effect).”

Shoot me. I mean, just shoot me.

See also

• Ditch tolerance