Canceling a Contract with Another Contract

My question involves business law in the state of: Illinois

My question involves business law in the state of: Illinois

I entered a bilateral contract with another company to perform certain services. Since then it has come to both our mutual benefit to cancel the contract provided that I am paid for the hours of work I have already done. We have both agreed to this informally via email but since the original contract was in writing I want the cancellation to be in writing as well. I searched on Google but could not find much on this subject (most links had to do with canceling wireless contracts). Would the following suffice?

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Purpose:
The purpose of this contract is to cancel the contract signed by the Client and the Company, executed on the 18th of January, 2011.

Terms of Cancellation
This agreement shall render all parts of the first agreement null and void. The Client agrees to compensate the Company for the four hours of work he has performed. The Company agrees to refund the Client the initial deposit minus the $X for the four hours of work and any associated paypal fees.
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Would something like this ensure that he could not in the future come and try to have the first contract resumed?

Your phraseology is unnecessarily clumsy and awkward. You're talking about confirming a mutual release from contract, so how about starting by using that terminology?

Quote:

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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Your phraseology is unnecessarily clumsy and awkward. You're talking about confirming a mutual release from contract, so how about starting by using that terminology?

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I expected that, I have no legal background (outside of 2 college classes) and could not find anything on the issue to use as a template so I'm not terribly surprised that the wording is bad.

Using the term "mutual release" I was able to find much more on Google. Thanks for your assistance.