Can a strong contract prevent a breach of contract in San Diego?  It may sound a bit redundant, but one of the best strategies to avoid a breach of contract in San Diego business transactions is to ensure that a sound contract is constructed for the transaction itself.

Key Takeaways Answering the Question Can a strong contract prevent a breach of contract in San Diego or Anywhere in California?

• The most common source of contract disputes and breach of contract cases here in San Diego and across California is a poor contract, often downloaded, or someone has taken a contract from their past and tried to modify it to meet the needs of the present.  This only leads to disputes and expensive lessons.
• A strong contract is the best recipe to prevent any breach of contract.  The contract is like a road map, and should smoothly guide the parties through the transaction, while anticipating and providing a path through any unexpected development or dispute during the term of the agreement.
• A well drafted contract clearly establishes the responsibilities of each party and the time frames involved.  It anticipates the potential for breaches in advance and helps to provide a process to avoid them, and to rapidly resolve them when they occur. The underlying business contracts themselves will go a long way to determining the potential success or failure of each business transaction.

Downloading or Crafting Your Own Contract Often Leads to a Dispute Down the Road

Many small business owners (and even mid-size companies as well) attempt to create their own contracts, or download a form and then modify it to save a few dollars. When the transaction doesn’t go as planned, and a breach of contract occurs the resulting expense, time and loss of opportunity become significantly expensive quite rapidly.  The resulting costs of resolving or litigating the breach are exponentially more expensive than the cost of negotiating and creating a sound contract before entering into a transaction.

Can a Strong Contract Prevent a Breach of Contract?

While there are many unforeseeable contingencies which can affect the conclusion of a successful agreement, the contract itself provides the best protection against a potential breach. The attorneys at the Watkins Firm have more than four decades of experience with thousands of San Diego and California businesses.  We know that sound contracts can help to prevent a breach of contract in San Diego.  We not only understand your business, but have helped several clients in your actual market niche.  We can provide deep insight into the unique challenges that arise in your industry, and help to structure agreements that guide the parties seamlessly through the transaction.  We know where the pitfalls lie, and approach the transaction with enthusiasm and a positive working atmosphere that facilitates the completion of a deal, while helping the parties to move through the process successfully.

The Essence of a Good Contract

Can a strong contract prevent a breach of contract in San Diego or anywhere in California before it ever begins to evolve?  What is the essence of a good contract?  A well drafted contract clearly establishes the responsibilities of each party and the time frames involved.  It anticipates the potential for breaches in advance and helps to provide a process to avoid them, and to rapidly resolve them when they occur.

We have a library of literally thousands of proven contracts for almost any application.  We don’t create them from scratch.  This is far too costly and time-consuming.  Our clients value the streamlined process our attorneys use to carefully tailor a proven contract to reflect the unique nature of the transaction(s) at hand.

Pro-Tip: “How are San Diego breach of contract cases generally resolved?

The good news for our clients is the vast majority of our breach of contract cases are resolved by settlement. The parties often agree to settle after they get tired of beating each other.  But more specifically, an offer of settlement and substantive productive negotiations. That’s the first way. And then very, very helpful is mediation settlement conferences, where you go to a third party and you literally sit in different rooms, while one experienced judge goes back and forth and say ‘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, your strengths (and weaknesses), 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 (an alternative to going to trial). You can’t go to court for two, three years, but you had an arbitration clause. You got your matter decided in a year, year and a half. And it costs half as much money. 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.

I could tell you some stories. I’ve learned from some judges, a lot of judges, over the years and would talk to them about the psychology of a settlement. And they would say, you have to understand that when people are at odds with each other, there’s a lot of emotion there. And just like, when you negotiate to buy a car, you always say, I can only afford this. And they always say that, but that’s what we call going through the dance. If you don’t appreciate and understand that this case is worth $50,000 and you say I’ll pay $50,000 and they say no. And you’re like, why? They know it’s worth $50k, you know, it’s worth $50k, but their egos, their emotions, won’t let, them get there. You have to say, I’ll pay $10k. And they have to say, they want $90k. That’s just it. And if you’re not willing to go through those dance steps to solve your problem, you will not get that middle result.

And that is what judges talk about when they bring you in. And they say, where are you? And you say, I’m here. And they say, well, why don’t we start here? And then they go the other side. And then they hear all the reasons. And then we walk it through. We hear everyone vent about what was wrong and what the other side did wrong until everybody’s happy or not happy. And we have a settlement… or not.  We settle the vast majority of our cases, and protect our client’s interests.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

The Real Cost in a Business Dispute

Your business contracts themselves will go a long way to determining the potential success or failure of each business transaction.  The cost for working with our experienced business attorneys in advance is minimal when compared to the resulting profit when the transaction is successfully completed.  It pales in comparison to the cost of litigating or defending a breach of contract.

You need a contract to help avoid issues, clearly establish the objectives and expectations and ultimately deliver a successful result.

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.

Meet Daniel Watkins:

Daniel W. Watkins is a true people person who sincerely listens. He cares deeply about what others are going through.  Dan enjoys digging into the facts and finding creative solutions to problems.  He contributes his insights candidly and constructively.

Dan’s interest in people make him deeply invested in every relationship and his exuberant personality makes him a true litigator. Dan fights for his clients with a fierce and calculated commitment.

Dan has practiced in the areas of business, medical practices and healthcare business, high tech/science, real estate and employment defense law since 1987. He is a trusted litigation strategist and true trial attorney with over 50 jury and bench trials to his credit. Dan has successfully represented both large companies and individuals and achieved substantial victories in well-publicized trials throughout California and the U.S.

He is experienced in business and corporate formation and administration, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including binding arbitration and mediation.

THE ROAD TO BECOMING A BUSINESS LAWYER AND LITIGATOR

Dan has almost 40 years of experience working with, for and against some of the largest insurance companies in the country. He has successfully tried and litigated cases in the areas of Healthcare Compliance, Commercial Litigation, Unfair Business Practices, Fraud, Breach of Contract, Battery, Premises Liability, Product Defect, Medical Malpractice, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Construction Defect, as well as Unfair Competition, Defamation, and Trade Secrets.

In December 2003, Dan commenced litigation against Health South Surgery Centers-West, Inc and its’ subsidiaries, exposing the company’s extensive mismanagement and misconduct of its’ surgery centers. Dan has also been asked by some of California’s largest municipalities and corporations to conduct legally required investigations into matters involving alleged employment discrimination and harassment.