Definition
In law, "ready" most commonly appears as an element of the phrase "ready, willing, and able," the standard applied to a buyer or other party who must demonstrate present capacity and commitment to perform a contract — particularly in real estate transactions and broker commission disputes. Standing alone, the term also carries legal significance in at least two distinct contexts:
1. READINESS TO PERFORM (CONTRACT LAW): A party is "ready" when they have the present, unconditional ability and intent to perform their contractual obligations at the time performance is due. Readiness is distinct from mere willingness; it implies that no legal or financial obstacle prevents performance at that moment.
2. IMPLIED COVENANT FROM LANGUAGE OF READINESS: When a party declares in a contract or obligation that they "will be ready to" perform an act, courts have treated that language as giving rise to a binding covenant — an enforceable promise — not merely an expression of intent or aspiration.
3. TRIAL READINESS: In procedural contexts, a party announces "ready" to signal to the court that they are prepared to proceed to trial or hearing. This declaration can carry waiver consequences if later retracted without cause.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To prepare; to make ready for action.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Prepared for what one is about to do or experience; equipped or supplied with what is needed for some act or event; fitted or arranged for immediate use.
The ordinary meaning captures the intuitive sense well enough, but misses the legal precision. In contract and real estate law, "ready" is not merely a state of preparation — it is a legal status with substantive consequences. A buyer who is emotionally prepared but lacks financing is not "ready" in the legal sense. The gap matters most in commission disputes, where a broker's right to compensation can turn entirely on whether the buyer they produced was legally "ready" at the moment the seller refused.
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Common Confusion
READY vs. WILLING vs. ABLE: These three terms are often treated as a single phrase, but each carries independent weight. A buyer may be willing (desiring to buy) and able (financially capable) but not ready (there is a present impediment to immediate performance, such as a contingency that has not yet been satisfied). Courts and commentators occasionally collapse these distinctions; researchers should examine whether a given source treats the elements as independently meaningful or as a formulaic whole.
READINESS vs. TENDER: In some performance contexts, a party must go beyond being ready and actually tender performance before a breach by the other side can be established. These concepts are related but not interchangeable.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term "ready" earns its legal weight primarily through the phrase "ready, willing, and able," which is the central test in real estate broker commission disputes. Researchers working in that area should be aware that the standard's application has shifted across time and jurisdiction: in some periods and places, a broker earned a commission upon producing a ready, willing, and able buyer regardless of whether a closing ever occurred; in others, commission is deferred until closing or conditioned on the buyer's performance. This evolution creates significant traps in historical sources — an older treatise affirming a broker's right to commission upon producing a buyer may not reflect the modern default rule in a given state.
The Bouvier entry is a reminder that the implied-covenant reading of readiness language long predates the real estate commission context. Researchers examining older contracts, pleadings, or conveyancing instruments should flag any phrase of the form "I will be ready to" as potentially covenant-forming language under the classical common law rule, even where modern drafters may have used it casually.
In procedural sources, "ready for trial" declarations appear in scheduling orders, trial calendars, and appellate records. Researchers using older court records should note that announcing readiness and then seeking a continuance could historically trigger sanctions or adverse consequences — context that affects how such declarations read in the record.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is brief but pointed: "The words, 'I will be ready to,' are held to imply a covenant." The single citation to 1 Rolle's Abridgment reflects a deeply rooted common law principle that language expressing future readiness to perform is treated as promissory rather than precatory. Bouvier does not elaborate on the "ready, willing, and able" formulation — that phrase developed most fully in the context of real estate brokerage law, which postdates the classical abridgments. Researchers relying solely on Bouvier will find support for the implied-covenant reading but will need to look to later treatises and case law for the broker-commission framework.
The Webster's 1913 definition aligns closely with the plain-language sense and does not illuminate the legal term of art, which is consistent with the phrase only achieving its clearest legal definition in judicial decisions and real estate practice materials of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Jurisdictional Note
The "ready, willing, and able" standard in broker commission disputes varies meaningfully by state. Some jurisdictions require all three elements to be demonstrated simultaneously and with specificity (particularly as to financial ability); others apply a more lenient standard. A minority of states require actual closing before a commission is earned absent express contrary agreement.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
"Broker Commission Disputes — Procuring Cause, Ready Willing and Able Buyer, and MLS Cooperation," Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia
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