I agree: it makes sense to use immediately if you’re seeking to convey a real sense of urgency. Nevertheless, even when you’re dealing with suspending someone’s account, immediately might take a couple of hours. (It’s an area I know nothing about!)

Mike also suggested that immediately is common in provisions such as this one: “If Licensor is acquired by a third party, Licensee may terminate this agreement immediately and without notice.” Here you’re getting into territory I covered in my post on at any time. I’d be inclined to do dispense with immediately, but it doesn’t hurt.

The comments by Michael and Mike have caused me to refine my recommendation: Use promptly instead of immediately for purposes of obligations and conditions. In language of discretion, immediately serves a different function, so the question isn’t whether to use it instead of promptly but whether to use it at all. I think it’s generally unnecessary in language of discretion, but it’s also harmless.

Regarding the other use of immediately that you mention, I was too quick to dismiss it. Here’s my preliminary thought: if action A automatically produces effect B, is immediately even necessary? For example, I don’t think immediately is required in the following sentence: “This agreement will terminate when the Acme Contract terminates.”

But I’ll ponder this at leisure. Thanks for raising the issue.

Ken

Your examples seem to presume that immediately might only be used as a standard for how soon a party to the contract needs to perform an executory action (i.e., immediately would follow the word shall, at least when shall is used in preferred proper Adams-form). I agree that in that usage promptly is the preferable choice (since at the leat it’s less rude…), and that there is no point in looking for subtle variations between promptly and immediately in this context (absent a contractually agreed upon difference in how the two words are to be interpreted).

However, where a thing will become true as a result of another act having happened, I could still see using immediately. For example, “At the time I lose my license to use the Widget, your sublicense to use the Widget also terminates immediately.” The extinguishment of the sublicense happens without waiting for a reasonable period of time to pass for a party to act, since no party’s action is required for this to become true – It just “is” because we say so in the contract. In that context, immediately makes perfect sense to use (and I don’t see that as creating an unintended ambiguity for those eagle-eyed litigators to pounce upon).