Discussions in Contracts: Manner of Acceptance: Bilateral and Unilateral Contracts Podcast

This podcast explains how to determine if the offer is one that can be accepted by a return promise, a return promise or performance or whether a return performance is required. Sometimes you will hear reference to bilateral and unilateral contracts. The terms bilateral and unilateral do not relate to the number of parties to the contract. Instead, a bilateral contract is where there is a set of mutual promises made by both parties. A unilateral contract is where one party has made a promise, and some action other than a return promise by the other party is needed in order to form the contract. At the conclusion of this podcast, you should be able to (1) define the three manners of acceptance: (i) return promise; (ii) return promise or performance; and (iii) return promise only; (2) explain how an offer for a unilateral contract creates an option contract when the offeree begins the requested performance; and (3) determine whether a seller has accepted an offer of a buyer by either promising to ship goods or by promptly shipping them.