What a contract must contain, who is liable for what, and why your own client agreement needs a liability cap. Not legal advice; the questions to bring to a lawyer.
Read the transcript
Contracts and liability basics.
What a contract must contain, who is liable for what, and why your own client agreement needs a liability cap.
Not legal advice; the questions to bring to a lawyer.
Why planners get sued, and why they rarely are.
Most event disputes never reach a lawyer.
They are settled in a tense phone call about a deposit, a missed delivery or a dance floor that was two metres short.
What every event contract must contain.
A contract is an exchange of promises that both sides can enforce.
The paperwork around an event is a web of them: client to planner, planner or client to venue, client to each vendor.
Liability, indemnity and the cap.
Liability is the legal responsibility for a loss.
Indemnity is a promise to cover someone else's loss.
Deposits, cancellations and force majeure.
Every deposit clause should answer the same question: on what date does the client's money stop coming back, and why?
A fair structure steps down over time, because your ability to rebook a date shrinks as it gets closer.
When to involve a lawyer.
Once, to draft or review your standard client agreement and your vendor terms. Reuse them for years.
Whenever a client's procurement team sends their own agreement with indemnity wording you do not understand.
That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.
What you will be able to do
- List the clauses every event contract needs
- Explain liability and indemnity
- Know when to involve a lawyer
Why planners get sued, and why they rarely are
Most event disputes never reach a lawyer. They are settled in a tense phone call about a deposit, a missed delivery or a dance floor that was two metres short. The contract matters because it decides who is holding the bag when that call happens. A planner who signs vendor contracts in her own name, with no agreement with the client, is personally carrying every one of those risks.
This lesson is not legal advice. It is a planner’s map of the questions you need to understand well enough to ask a lawyer the right things, and to read a venue agreement without being surprised. When you build your own client agreement, have an Ontario lawyer review it once. That single hour costs less than one argument over a cancelled wedding.
What every event contract must contain
A contract is an exchange of promises that both sides can enforce. The paperwork around an event is a web of them: client to planner, planner or client to venue, client to each vendor. Whichever one you are reading, look for these elements.
| Clause | What it must say | Where planners get burned |
|---|---|---|
| Parties | The exact legal names: the foundation, not “the gala committee”; your registered business name, not your first name | Signing as yourself when you meant to sign as your company |
| Scope | Exactly what is delivered: dates, hours, headcount, deliverables, what is excluded | “Full planning services” with no list, so every add-on is an argument |
| Price and payment | Fee, schedule of payments, what triggers each one, whether HST is extra | Quotes before 13% HST and 18% service charge, then a surprise invoice |
| Deposit and cancellation | What is refundable, when, and the sliding scale as the date approaches | Non-refundable deposits with no force majeure wording |
| Changes | How headcount, date or scope changes are priced and approved in writing | Verbal changes on the day that nobody will pay for later |
| Liability and indemnity | Who pays if something goes wrong, and the cap on what you owe | No cap at all, so a $4,500 fee carries unlimited exposure |
| Insurance | Who carries what coverage and who must be named as additional insured | Vendor arrives with no certificate and the venue refuses to let them load in |
| Termination | How either side can end it and what is owed at that point | Client stops paying; you cannot walk away cleanly |
| Signatures | Someone with authority, dated, with all schedules attached | A committee volunteer signs for a charity that never authorised the spend |
Liability, indemnity and the cap
Liability is the legal responsibility for a loss. Indemnity is a promise to cover someone else’s loss. Read those two words slowly in every venue contract, because hotels write them in their own favour. A typical venue agreement asks the client to indemnify the hotel for damage caused by guests, vendors and entertainers. If you sign that in your own name, you have just promised to pay for a guest who breaks a chandelier.
Three practices keep you out of that position. First, the client, not the planner, signs the venue and major vendor contracts wherever possible. You negotiate; they sign. Second, your own client agreement states that you are an agent arranging services on their behalf, and that vendors are responsible for their own performance. Third, your agreement caps your liability, commonly at the fees paid to you. A cap is not a loophole; it is the standard way a service business with a $4,500 fee avoids carrying a $400,000 risk. Whether a particular cap will hold up is a question for your lawyer, which is exactly why you have one review it.
Deposits, cancellations and force majeure
Every deposit clause should answer the same question: on what date does the client’s money stop coming back, and why? A fair structure steps down over time, because your ability to rebook a date shrinks as it gets closer. State it in a table in the contract, not in prose.
Force majeure covers events outside anyone’s control: severe weather, a public health order, a fire at the venue. Since 2020, every venue in the GTA has rewritten this clause, and many now offer postponement credits rather than refunds. Read what the venue offers, and make sure your own client agreement does not promise a refund the venue will not give you.
When to involve a lawyer
- Once, to draft or review your standard client agreement and your vendor terms. Reuse them for years.
- Whenever a client’s procurement team sends their own agreement with indemnity wording you do not understand.
- When a contract is large relative to your business, roughly anything where a loss would hurt you for more than a season.
- Before you sign anything personally on behalf of a client or a charity.
- The moment a dispute involves a written demand. Do not reply in writing before you have talked to counsel.
Worked example: the Harbour Gala
The foundation’s committee chair wants to move fast and asks you to sign the hotel contract because “you are the planner”. You decline politely and explain why. The hotel’s agreement carries an $18,000 food and beverage minimum, which becomes roughly $24,000 with the 18% service charge and HST. It also contains an indemnity clause covering damage by guests and entertainers. The foundation, which has its own insurance and a $40,000 budget, is the right party to carry that. You negotiate the terms, flag three clauses to the foundation’s executive director, and the foundation signs.
Your own agreement with the foundation lists your scope (planning, vendor management, run of show, day-of coordination from 2 p.m. to midnight), your $4,500 flat fee plus HST payable in three instalments, a cancellation table, and a liability cap at fees paid. You attach the vendor list as a schedule and state that each vendor contracts directly with the foundation. The mentalist and the two strolling magicians each sign a short performance agreement with the foundation, with you as the contact. If the mentalist cancels, the foundation’s remedy is against the mentalist, and your job is to find the replacement, which is what your fee pays for.
Common mistakes
- Signing in your own name. Use the business name on everything, and check the signature block before you sign.
- Letting a verbal change stand. Confirm every change by email the same day, with the price.
- Missing the HST line. Write “plus HST” after every figure so nobody can claim it was included.
- Treating a vendor’s template as neutral. It was written for them. Read the cancellation and damage clauses first.
- Copying a contract from the internet. Use the /tools/event-proposal-template/ as your starting point for scope, then have a lawyer finish the legal clauses.
Worksheet
Download the worksheet, complete it for your own event (or the running gala example), and keep it in your course binder. It takes about 10 minutes.
Check your understanding
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