Nobody has read the defined terms

Defined terms are where drafting does its quiet work. Practical Completion, Site, Works, Due Date - each capitalised word means exactly what the definitions section says it means, and an amended definition rewrites every clause that uses the word without touching the clause itself. The payment section can look untouched while the date it hangs on has been moved from underneath it.

Skipping the definitions is how familiar-looking contracts surprise people: the clause reads like the standard form, the defined term underneath it doesn't, and the difference surfaces as a missed date or a deduction nobody saw coming. A review reads the contract the way it will be enforced - definitions first, then the amendments, then what the clauses now actually say - and hands back a schedule of what changed and what it costs.