Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing and development.

Still, we, here at Miletti Law®, feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy & distinctive content, which looks to not only educate, but also deliver in a manner that only Miletti Law® can. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As a way of responding to your inquiries and questions regarding legal representation and how to navigate legal matters concerning the entertainment industry, we have been updating our new L & E (Law & Entertainment) series on Entertainment Law with fresh, credible, and verifiable content. In our Episode 4 video titled “3 Key Terms To Avoid Entertainment Contract Disputes” and Part IV of the L & E series, we hammered on the 3 vital terms that must be featured in a contract to avoid entertainment contract disputes. To keep the ball rolling, this blog is Part V of our L & E (Law & Entertainment) series and an introduction to yet another interesting and informative video titled “Infants & Entertainment Contracts.” Through this video, we aim to enlighten you about the uniqueness of entertainment industry contracts that involve individuals who have not yet reached the adult age. As usual, the video is accessible through the link provided at the end of this blog or as posted on our social media platforms.

We have, in our videos and blogs under this series, continually emphasized the extraordinary uniqueness of contracts in the entertainment industry since they do not follow the standard contract formation process. Contract formation in entertainment gets even more subtle when individuals who have not reached the age of consent are involved. Under contract law, such individuals are known as “infants” because they are not fully capable and competent to make decisions independently when entering into a contract. Even today, a number of famous actors or musicians continue to join the entertainment industry in their teens. Currently, although the law that governs contract formation that involves infants varies from state to state, the primary objective is to protect and intervene in case disputes arise.

However, unlike other types of contracts, entertainment industry contracts are quite different because of the involvement of these infants. Although the law governing contracts involving infants varies by state, minors and underage actors, artists, or musicians can generally contract and have enforceable contracts unless the state law says otherwise. The unique and different aspect, in this case, is that an infant can enter into a contract and have the power to disaffirm (repudiate, ratify, or scrap off) the contract, particularly when the individual hits 18 years or more. This means that the infant would not be liable for the contract. There might also be some kind of quasi-contractual remedy in case of a breach or typical cancelation of the contract.

Although the infant has the power to disaffirm the contract without taking liability for any damages arising as a result, there may exist some form of quasi-contract liability for certain investments and prerequisites. For instance, a contract might have a requirement that in case an infant disaffirms a contract, such an infant is required to restore the goods in possession or pay/return back the investment made on them during the signing of the contract. This means that disaffirming is a process where the investing company has to be compensated for damages in one way or another, even if not by this individual.

Moreover, generally speaking, if a minor who is now 18 years old is found to have entered into a contract and tried to take some kind of nefarious action now to put themselves in a better position and gain some sort of unfair advantage, but which they would not have been entitled were they still an infant, courts may intervene and require the contract to be terminated indefinitely or have its terms ratified or modified to strike a balance and reasonably accommodate the contracting parties.

Another critical aspect concerning entertainment contracts that involve infants is that many states require some sort of judicial intervention through which contracts can be ratified, modified, or terminated. For instance, the state of New York has a general obligations law (Section 3101), which prohibits an individual from disaffirming a contract that is found to be reasonable and provident, even if it was signed when this person was a child. In such a case, a court will affirm or uphold the contract and require the breaching party to incur punitive damages and liabilities where applicable. Similarly, California has an optional procedure through which either party can petition the court to affirm or terminate the contract.

In a nutshell, the treatment of infants in entertainment industry contracts is quite different compared to that of the similar individuals in other regular types of contracts, which also underscores the uniqueness of contracts in this industry. In regular contracts, infants do not have the capacity to contract, but they do when it comes to entertainment industry contracts. It is assumed that infants in the entertainment industry have the capacity to contract just like adults do. Nonetheless, regulations and laws that govern entertainment industry contracts that involve infants vary by state.

We invite you to view our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKBhV6YUBs.

We look forward to updating this L & E series with more videos and blogs to keep you in the know and ahead of the game when it comes to contract formation in the entertainment industry and resolving disputes that may arise.

As such, stay tuned for Part VI of the series and strive to be #UnusuallyMotivated. In the interim, reach out to us with questions and/or comments on our website at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.