I think you have a significantly bigger burden of proof to prove the other party had accepted it if you signed it and returned it having amended it without ment

I think you have a significantly bigger burden of proof to prove the other party had accepted it if you signed it and returned it having amended it without mentioning those changes in the email, and it would be much less clear cut. If you mentioned “here it is with a few small changes”, and you got back an email that said “received”, even if they didn’t explicitly ok the changes or sign it, and you started working, I think you’d be on much firmer ground though. There’ll be explicit case law but it’ll come down to “would a reasonable person think the changes to the contract had been accepted”