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What is acceptance?

Bar Exam Prep Contracts Contract Formation What is acceptance?
🤔 Contracts • Contract Formation K#034

Legal Definition

Acceptance is a manifestation of assent to the terms of an offer.

Plain English Explanation

"Acceptance" is the result of a person doing something that demonstrates they willfully wish to be bound to the terms of the offer. Acceptance can be as explicit as, "Yes, I accept your offer and terms," or as implicit as a thumbs-up. You will always want to look for some way that the offeror may be able to reasonably believe that the offeree has agreed to the offer, as you'll usually have to argue that someone's acceptance wasn't clear enough or, alternatively, someone's mistaken acceptance still counts as acceptance because it would be unfair not to.

Visual Aids

What is acceptance?
What is acceptance?

Related Concepts

Are offers assignable? Are pre-existing duties valid consideration? Can partial payment of a debt be consideration for release of that debt? How can an offeree reject an offer? How do courts assess the adequacy of consideration? How may an offer be revoked? Though offers can generally be freely revoked, what are the 4 exceptions? Under battle of the forms, what happens to additional or different terms in an acceptance when at least one of the parties is a non-merchant? Under battle of the forms, what happens to additional terms in an acceptance between two merchants? Under battle of the forms, what happens to different terms in an acceptance between two merchants? What are consideration substitutes? What are illusory promises and how do they affect a contract? What are requirement and output contracts? What are the methods of terminating an offer? What are the requirements of an offer? What are the UCC Gap Fillers? What is a contract? What is a merchant's firm offer? What is an option contract? What is consideration? What is detrimental reliance? What is promissory estoppel? What is required to form a valid, binding contract? What is the effect of a conditional acceptance on an offer? What is the effect of a contract that contains vague or ambiguous terms? What is the effect of a contract that is missing price terms? What is the effect of a contract that is missing quantity terms? What is the effect of a counteroffer on an offer? What is the effect of a lapse of time on an offer? What is the effect of an offeree beginning to perform in response to an offer? What is the effect of a seller sending non-conforming goods? What is the effect of including additional or different terms to an offer? What is the effect of part performance of a unilateral contract? What is the effect of the death of a party prior to acceptance of an offer? What is the Mailbox Rule and when does it apply? When are advertisements valid offers? When are price quotes valid offers? When is past or moral consideration valid? Who controls the method of acceptance, and what are the typical ways that an offer is accepted?
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