- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
We are a small contracting business based out of Southern California. We entered into a contract with an advertising company, based out of North Carolina. (The contract and agreement was signed in CA, but the contract states that the laws of the state of North Carolina are used to interpret and enforce said contract). When we signed this agreement, we were explicitly told by the sales rep that we could cancel at any time if we are unhappy with the results. This was an outright lie, as our owner soon found out the agreement was for 3 years! He wrestled with the rep to try and get our contract cancelled since we were told we could since it has garnered ZERO results (which I know is legally beside the point, since there are no guarantees in advertising). We were told that we could not cancel and if we wanted out of the contract we would have to pay the full agreement price, or more than $22,000. The only other option we were given was a reduced ad size and a discounted rate of $749/month. This is where I fear we went wrong, since the owner of our company agreed to the lower rate and signed a totally new contract enforceable until Dec. 2019, BUT ONLY DID SO OUT OF FEAR.
And herein lies my question: Given that we were outright lied to upon singing the initial contract, is that sufficient grounds for us to escape liabilities enforceable by this contract? If so, having signed a renewed contract, can we still make this argument of deception since we entered the new agreement out of fear of legal retaliation for a contract that was forged in deception?
He truly was told by the rep that he had no other option and that he had better sign for the reduced rate or else be sued for the full amount. Essentially, he was scared and coerced using a document that bore his signature only through deception. By the way, the rep is no longer with the company. A copy of the contract T&Cs is attached. Thank you!
===> Personal details and contract redacted <===
And herein lies my question: Given that we were outright lied to upon singing the initial contract, is that sufficient grounds for us to escape liabilities enforceable by this contract? If so, having signed a renewed contract, can we still make this argument of deception since we entered the new agreement out of fear of legal retaliation for a contract that was forged in deception?
He truly was told by the rep that he had no other option and that he had better sign for the reduced rate or else be sued for the full amount. Essentially, he was scared and coerced using a document that bore his signature only through deception. By the way, the rep is no longer with the company. A copy of the contract T&Cs is attached. Thank you!
===> Personal details and contract redacted <===