Are you or your company are facing an allegation of breach of contract in San Diego or anywhere in California? There are steps you should immediately take to protect and defend your interests.  Have you been served papers notifying you of a pending lawsuit for breach of contract?  While the other party may not be able to force you to perform services or provide goods established in the original contract, they can attempt to hold you financially accountable for the “damages” they have borne as a result of the breach of contract.

When you face an allegation of breach of contract the resulting business litigation can e a long, drawn out process that consumes time, business focus, resources and profits.  The best resolution is almost always a negotiated alternative or settlement.  The experienced business, contract and litigation attorneys at the Watkins Firm have more than four decades of service to the San Diego and California business community.  We will aggressively protect your interests, while working with other parties to the contract to negotiate a resolution that meets your goals and business objectives.

The good news is this: the Watkins Firm is able to resolve the vast majority of our breach of contract cases through effective, leveraged negotiation.  We work to construct a detailed, well-documented chronology of events and a mastery of all associated potential damages.  If a negotiated settlement cannot be reached The Watkins Firm can represent you in mediation or arbitration if necessary, and through a trial if the dispute requires it.  Our clients value the candid, timely advice we provide at each step of the process, and the way our lawyers help them to understand the issues they face and the available options.

There are steps the other party must take to mitigate their losses and reduce associated damages.  If they fail to do so in a timely, prudent manner it increases the likelihood of a successful outcome for our clients.

Pro-Tip: “Well, as lawyers, we are champions of our client’s cause. So when you come to see a Watkins Firm attorney, we will talk about how to resolve things and the steps we believe may be needed to do so. So what we really do as lawyers is we’re advocates for you. Iif you are being accused of breach of contract and you don’t think it’s true, we don’t either. And we want to compete, go after and win that case for you.

And what ever you believe is true, we believe is true. And we’ll even gather more evidence for you to prove your point. So when you’re talking to a lawyer, you should understand you’re talking to somebody who wants to be your advocate, wants to be your champion will give you straight advice. But if you want to go for it, they’ll go for it. If you want to settle, they’ll help you settle. So that’s what you should think about. If you’re in a real breach of contract dispute that requires a lawyer understand that he’s your guard dog. He’s going to go and protect you as much as you want. 

The vast majority of our breach of contract cases are resolved by settlement. We extend an offer of settlement negotiations. That’s the first and most efficient way to resolve these cases. And then, a very helpful next step is often a mediation settlement conference, where you go to a third party and you literally sit in different rooms while one experienced judge goes back and forth and say is, ‘what about this? What about that? What about this?’ Until you can try to make a meeting of the minds. And that judge will tell you practical things about what you’re doing, how you’re wasting your life in litigation and how you could just resolve this and probably come out more ahead than if you went to court.

And there’s also arbitrations. A lot of contracts have an arbitration clause and there’s been a lot of bad press in the media, but they are valuable. You got your matter decided in a year, year and a half and it costs half as much money or less than a trial. And finally going to trial. If you’ve got to go to trial, then you should be preparing for, and as I’ve said, a hundred times, you should be preparing for your trial thinking about damages, whether you are the one who who’s alleged to have caused them or not. That’s what you’re there for. So put a lot of your focus on whether someone was damaged and then you know who will probably be more successful.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

The Watkins Firm works diligently to master the damages in every situation and employ leveraged negotiation to gain the attention of the other party and work through the issues at hand to reach an efficient resolution.

If you have face an allegation of breach of contract in San Diego, or served papers in a lawsuit we invite you to review our podcast Episode 5 – Breach of Contract as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.