The best-known example of this process is, of course, the United States Constitution, which has been amended 27 times since its ratification in 1788. The first 10 of these changes are the Bill of Rights. This is an overtly fantastic fear: not only is it difficult to know what the 1971 U.S. Bankruptcy Act said, let alone how it might have been interpreted at the time, but many of the institutions and concepts on which it is based may have been abolished or substantially altered. Who knows? Perhaps some old equestrian refuges from the 1960s that could be applied to exchanges. But on the other hand, it`s not as likely — and it`s just as hard to blame U.S. lawmakers for not adopting safe havens for swaps before the 1980s — because there were no swaps before 1981. Well, once upon a time, I thought this ERISA gag could be tacitly appreciated, at least among my contrary co-conspirators in the world of financial derivatives, but that doesn`t seem to be the case. So, at the risk of explaining the joke: financial documents are also modified. Publicly traded companies are required to report their results to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) quarterly and annually. This report is available to all shareholders of the Corporation and the public. If a number is incorrect or an important factor is detected, a change to the result report must be submitted.

Specifically, what struck me was this article on the sentence as amended. This is a subject that I have fortunately avoided for all these many years. It is high time I tackled it. The Chair may from time to time address the Chair of the Non-Executive Board. But the answer, if the pedant you`re negotiating with is trying to smear your prose, is: “It goes without saying that it means `changed from time to time.` Well, what kind of monster would want to refer to a treaty or a law as it exists at any time other than the present moment? Without the suffix from time to time, the client can only request this certificate once. The phrase allows the customer to request the certificate as often as they want. A second use from time to time serves to clarify that said object may change after the entry into force of the contract: the customer may from time to time ask the service provider to issue him an insurance certificate. For example, Article V of the United States Constitution provides for ways to amend the Constitution through amendments. What happens if a legal provision in another Act refers to a provision and it is amended? In this case, the second provision after an accident was amended to increase the liability limit. The General Court found (in [76]) that the first provision had adopted the second as amended from time to time. Above all, this included the date on which the amendment itself entered into force.

A bloating coda that goes without saying and is able to bring as much beautification as you have the mental capacity to apply it to the task. For example, try “as modified, completed, updated, and/or extended from time to time.” You may be able to add – and we use this verb intentionally – “orally or in writing”. I did my analysis by Mike O`Sullivan. He agreed that the modified form itself serves no purpose: “This is another manifestation of our fetish for false precision. The premise – without “as amended”, we would refer to the original version of the law – is so absurd that only a lawyer could think of it. The so-called smart design solution – automatically attaching “as modified” to every law name – turns out to be no solution, as you illustrate. Changes are often used to handle unforeseen events when the original document was created. For example, banking, commercial and tax laws and regulations were drafted long before the existence of the Internet. Many of these laws and regulations needed to be amended to facilitate (and regulate) online payment systems, electronic signatures, online stock market transactions, etc. The modified term can be used in a contract to modify references to laws and other treaties.

It appears in different categories of contractual languages. For example, a change to SEC files may be larger than most. The SEC could punish the company for distorting its profits. The altered profits could trigger a sale by shareholders or even lead to a class action lawsuit against the company. A change is a change or addition to the terms of a government contract, law or filing. Such a document may be amended with the consent of the parties concerned. This company cannot resolve to exclude the risk that, in the context of the resolution of an insolvent ERISA plan, a court will interpret ERISA as incorporating the U.S. Bankruptcy Act, as it existed in 1971 on the bankruptcy of the plan, rather than the Code of Conduct in its form in force at the time of the bankruptcy. This is a problem because the “safe havens” relied on to securely enter into swaps were not included in bankruptcy law until the 1980s. [3] So no compensation against the ERISA plans. Just in case. Despite this meaning, the expression is used slightly differently from time to time and in different contexts.

First, it specifies that an action is required or permitted more than once: for example, a contract may refer to a term as defined in a law or other contract. If the intention is to freeze the definition as it stands at the time of the Agreement, refer to the law or other agreement “as it is in force at the time of this Agreement”. If the intention is to adopt future amendments to the definition, it is preferable to refer to the law or other agreement “as it is in force at a given time”. (Simply saying “as amended” does not serve to indicate the time you are referring to. The statement “as amended from time to time” would not represent a great improvement – from time to time means “from time to time”, while each change could be immediately followed by another. And saying “how in fact” makes more sense than “as amended” because at the time in question, a particular law or contract may not have been amended.) And I also took the opportunity to ask Mike what it was like to be at the forefront of legal blogging, and then I packed it up. His answer: “I didn`t pack it, it just takes longer than usual to write my next post. I expect to reappear in one form or another in one place at some point, but other than that, I can`t give you anything definitive at the moment.

And when it comes to the “avant-garde,” I wouldn`t know. Broc Romanek`s blog at The Corporate Counsel single-handedly defined the genre, so I think he`s a pioneering one. The rest of us are just campers. Broc`s blog is Your Corp`s legal blog; next to it, there is only the legal blog Uruk Corp or the legal blog Kish Corp. In the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 15 provides for ways of amending a pleading.