Contractors should treat a contract
that contains the phrase "time is of
the essence" as if it were a package
from the Unabomber: Examine it
with great care and suspicion, because
it might blow up in your face.
In a contract with a "time is of the
essence" clause, the completion date is
so important to the customer's needs
that if the contract is not completed on
time, the work is practically worthless
and the customer does not have to pay
for it. "Time is of the essence" language
means that the contractor's failure to
finish on time is so damaging to the
customer that the contractor might as
well not have bothered starting.
For example, every