okay everybody welcome back and I have a short video lecture today on the mailbox rule this goes along with the formation of contracts I generally skipped over that portion in the PowerPoint video lecture previously so I wanted to take the handout separately and discuss that so let me go ahead and get that up on your screen and there it is let's talk about the mailbox rule basically the mailbox rule is a method of timing its determining timing basically in order for a contract for an offer to be accepted to form a valid contract a lot of things must exist but one of the things that must exist is there must be a valid living breathing offer that's out there and last time we talked about five different ways that an offer can die and not be living and breathing and capable being accepted and the mailbox rule generally reflects the timing of an acceptance and the timing of a revocation and when those are effective and that's going to be very important for purposes real-life law as well as for purposes of your exam and some hypotheticals that you may see on your next test in general you have to determine the way you you answer the hypotheticals and the way you go through the real-life situations in law is by going through the facts and determining not just when something happened but when it's effective that's the part that's really important lay people might not understand this but you can have a contract where you have an offer that's made and then a revocation that occurs next and then acceptance that occurs after that and it still be a valid contract doesn't make sense unless you know what the mailbox rule is so let's talk about that in general you're going to have two basic rules one rule is and always rule and one rule is sometimes rule and the always rule I'll take that one first because it's easiest and I like to do the easy ones first is when is the revocation of an offer effective I offer to sell you a car and I take it back I'm not gonna sell my car after all or I'm going to sell to somebody else or I changed my mind I'm going to sell it for a different price when is my revocation of that offer effective well the answer is when it is received by the offeree so let's take what you may think is a silly example I send you an offer to sell my car by mail and I send it on Monday and maybe you get it right away you get it on Tuesday which should be quick for the mail they're having a good day and on Tuesday I think about it I changed my mind and I say you know what I don't think I'm gonna sell my car after all and so I'll write you another letter and I put it in an envelope and I put it in the mailbox and the mailman doesn't come around Tuesday in my house he comes around Wednesday picks it up and then he goes back to the post office and then on Thursday that it goes to the main post office and you get it on Friday the rejection or the revocation of my offer I made it on Tuesday it's not effective on Tuesday it's not effective on Wednesday it's not effective on Thursday it's not effective until Friday because Friday is when you received it now the question is do we have a contract well it depends if you accepted the contract and the acceptance was effective before Friday then we have a contract so if you accepted it on Thursday even though I try to revoke it on Tuesday if you accepted it on Thursday and it was effective on Thursday we've got a contract let's look at the acceptance rules it's a sometimes rule sometimes it's effective immediately when you send it sometimes it's not effective until it's received by the offer or what makes the difference well it depends on if authorized means of communication are used what does that mean when I mailed you my offer I may have said hey look I'm gonna sell my car I offer to sell you my car for X dollars if you agree reply back by email here's my email address now I have dictated to you what the authorised means of communication our email if you use email as soon as you press the send button on that email communication that acceptance is effective if I said let me know by return snail mail Postal Service and you put it in the mailbox on Wednesday and I don't get it till the next Tuesday when is the acceptance effective Wednesday when you sent it not when I receive it Wednesday when you sent it why because I used the authorized means of communication the one dictated in the offer or you used it I guess what if you don't use it what if instead of sending it by mail in that second example that I gave you instead sent me a fax if that's the case then it doesn't mean that the acceptance is invalid it's still valid but it's only effective when it's received by the offer or basically the same rule now as a revocation so you're always rule is your acceptance your revocation is always effective when it's received not when it's sent the sometimes rule is that the acceptance is sometimes effective when it is sent and sometimes it's effective when it's receipt depending on whether you use the authorized means of communication or not there are two examples shown there on the handout the first one says an offer is made it says hey respond to this offer by fax the offer was made Monday the acceptance was made by hand dropping it off hand delivery on Wednesday but the person was out of the office the office door was shut they just slid it on the door whatever he wasn't received until Thursday when is that acceptance effective only when it's received because I told you the offer told you to respond by fax you didn't do it if you responded by fax the instant you sent the fax it would be effective right then but because you chose to hand-deliver it it's not effective until it's received so if in that case a revocation was sent by email Wednesday night after you had already hand dropped off for hand delivered the acceptance it doesn't matter the revocation is effective first why because you received it Wednesday night that's when the revocation is effective the acceptance isn't effective until it's received on Thursday because you did not use the authorized means of communication example - same as example one except you sent a fax acceptance Wednesday morning and let's say for whatever reason their fax machine wasn't working properly was ina ink or out of paper who knows doesn't matter doesn't matter the fax machine was the authorized means of communication so when you sent it Wednesday morning that's when it's effective so in that case you got a valid contract so make sure that you understand go through through this I would urge you to make up your own examples work through some of these and my tip is to just take these hypotheticals very meticulously and go through ignore when things are sent or received or whatever unless that was the effective time for it you have to determine what the rule is and then apply the rule okay well thank you very much you