Virtually every company in the Toledo area relies on contracts to do business. Contracts require all the parties involved to make promises and trust the other parties to live up to their own promises. When one of the parties violates that trust, that could lead to a lawsuit for breach of contract.
Not every small business that pursues breach of contract litigation has the same expectations, and there are options under the law. Specifically, there are three types of remedies to which a successful plaintiff may be entitled:
- Damages
- Specific performance
- Cancellation and restitution
Damages are the most common form of relief. This is a legal term for financial payment from the defendant to the plaintiff. Compensatory damages are meant to put the plaintiff in the same financial position as if defendant had not breached the contract. Punitive damages are a form of punishment for especially egregious behavior by the defendant. If the contract provided for liquidated damages in the event of a breach, then those terms dictate how much the plaintiff recovers.
In some cases, the plaintiff would rather have the court force the defendant to perform its duties under the contract. This is called specific performance. It makes the most sense in cases where money damages can’t suffice or the defendant’s obligations were rare or unique in some way.
Finally, cancellation voids the contract and frees the parties of their obligations. Restitution puts the plaintiff in the same position it was prior to the contract by compensating it for any benefits it conveyed to the defendant.
Both potential plaintiffs and defendants to a breach of contract claim rely on the skill and experience of their attorneys to reach a workable solution. Though most lawsuits settle out of court, it is important to select a lawyer with extensive courtroom abilities.
