A promise to cover someone else’s losses or legal costs.
An indemnification clause shifts financial risk: one party agrees to pay for certain losses, damages, or legal claims the other party suffers. The key questions are who indemnifies whom, what’s covered, and whether there’s a dollar cap. A one-sided or uncapped indemnity can expose you to large, open-ended liability.
“Tenant shall indemnify Landlord against all claims arising from Tenant’s use of the premises.” — this makes the tenant cover the landlord’s legal costs, even for some things outside the tenant’s control unless narrowed.
Main AI reads your actual contract, lease, or notice and flags exactly where terms like these put you at risk — in plain language, with the law behind it.
Analyze my document free →Indemnification shifts entire categories of loss from one party to the other — including losses caused by third parties. The three things to check in your document: scope (does it cover only claims caused by your breach, or 'any and all claims arising from the agreement'?), mutuality (one-way indemnity in a service contract means you insure them, they insure nothing), and defense obligations ('defend' means paying their lawyers from day one, not just the final judgment). Watch for indemnity that survives termination indefinitely, and for carve-outs that exclude the other side's own negligence — the fairest clauses are mutual, capped, and exclude each party's own misconduct.
See this clause in your own document: run a free analysis — findings quote the exact language.