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If someone signs a contract whilst under the influence of alcohol or medication is the contract binding

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I have no idea on this, what sort of contract are you referring to?

Possibly a chat with a solicitor or the CAB would help.

It would also probably depend upon whether or not the person knew what they were signing.

It would depend upon the individual circumstances and would probably take an expensive court case to settle. Such a scenario would be difficult to prove after the fact.

I agree, how could you prove that you signed anything whilst under the influence of alcohol?, drugs ok but even then, I think this is clutching at straws

It will be impossible to prove that the person was or wasn't under the influence when signing the contract .... therefore very doubtful in my mind that it would every be revoked !

Under the Law - a person under drugs or alcohol is still deemed legally responsibile for their action and any consquence of that action. Only under certain types of Mental Health Act Sections - would a person be deemed not capable or responsible for their own actions.

Thanks ginger!!

I think that under those circumstances it would be possible to challenge the validity of such a contract as I understand it, in contract law, a contract made by a minor or a mentally ill person, or even a normally competent person under the influence of drugs or alcohol, can be invalidated due to incapacity - but as Jan says, best to seek advice from a Solicitor!

What about if you agreed to PPI when under the influence?? - no forget that - will start another trend of claims of mis-selling!!!!!

As others have said though - how do you prove you were under the influence of anything? To be honest, having thought about it, if you were drunk then you have only yourself to blame if you sign anything at all.

If you are under medication that could render you 'non compus mentis' then I think this should be pointed out before anything legal is touched.

Pelder I echo what you have said. Oh Jan I don't agree that 'if you were drunk then you have only yourself to blame if you sign anything at all.'

I think when people are under such pressures these days it would be so easy to sign something if you'd had eg. a drink or two and then regret it later on.

It is not always so straight forward and I feel that we should not judge others like this.

Darren I don't think you've only yourself to blame because I do not know all of your circumstances nor do any of the forum members, and I'd get some personal one to one advice from CAB and if you have anything like a bank account etc which offers free legal advice please get the number and give them a ring. I wish you all the best and I'd hug you if you were in front of me that's all I can say.

Oscar
x

Suspect Ginger is right on this one.

So that reminds me to get the boss drunk at the Christmas party this year and to get him to sign my pay increase lol

What I am saying is that if you have been drinking, or under the influence of drugs then you should not sign anything but if you do then it is down to you.

You would never be able to prove it as others have said.

My last word on the subject.

Sorry Oscar and Pelder but I disagree, if this were the case, we could all use the excuse that when we signed for our loans, credit cards etc, we were all drunk, just to try to get out of paying them? I'm sorry but that's ridiculous, I suppose you could then argue that we were all drunk when we spent the loan monies and purchased on credit cards over a period of time aswell??? this is precisely why these things usually have a cooling off period so that when you have had time to 'sober up' and realise you signed for that loan on 3000% APR then you were lashed, you cancelled it before returning the money no?

I can't see how this would ever be held up in court, just take responsibility for the debts you took on