Are you searching for attorneys with a proven track record for defending your company in a breach of contract case or dispute?  A breach of contract is the most common form of business to business dispute or business litigation.  Many business owners and managers falsely believe there is no way to avoid the consequences of breaching a contract or agreement.  There are many reasons why a company may be forced to breach a contract and many successful strategies to defend a breach of contract while seeking to develop a settlement that will allow the parties to recover from the breach and enjoy the benefit of the bargain anticipated at the outset.

Our experienced business litigation attorneys take a unique approach when defending your San Diego business in a breach of contract which is specifically designed to resolve the dispute quickly and cost-effectively.  Breach of contract cases are all about the chronology of events, and the associated damages.  The party who is potentially harmed by the breach has a legal responsibility to take prompt, reasonable, and prudent action to reduce the financial and practical business impact of the breach.  This is known as “mitigating the damages” in a breach of contract.

The failure to mitigate the damages is a firm and successful strategy when defending your company in a breach of contract dispute.  We are able to successfully resolve the vast majority of our breach of contract defense cases through effective, leveraged negotiation.  We help opposing parties to understand the nature and cause of the breach while providing alternatives to allow the transaction or relationship to continue.  It may be necessary to offer additional incentive to the other party to resolve the dispute.

Watkins Firm attorneys work with our clients to establish clear objectives and goals.  We help our clients to understand their potential exposure to risk, liability and financial damages.  We provide sound counsel and take the action necessary to reduce the impact of the breach upon our clients.  We represent clients in negotiations, mediation, arbitration, and at trial.

Pro-Tip: “How are defense of breach of contract cases generally resolved? The Watkins Firm is able to resolve 95% of these cases by settlement. They parties agree to settle after they get tired of beating each other.  But more specifically the offers, an offer of settlement 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 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 and 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 can’t go to court for 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, you know, whether someone was damaged and then you know who will probably be more successful.

What is mitigating the damages, and when do you have to do it?  Mitigating the damages is an obligation under the law for those who are the victims of a breach of contract. A lot of people get hurt or damaged by someone who breaches a contract. And then they go with this attitude that, well, since the other party breached, they owe, and the party who didn’t breach doesn’t try to mitigate their damages. I mean, doing things that would make them not suffer as much from the breach of contract or other types of causes of action. And what happens in the law is a judge or a jury will hear what you did (or didn’t do) and you’ll think you’re gonna get $300,000 in trial. But the Judge or jury will decide that you failed to perform your obligation, to do everything you could to lessen the amount of damages you suffered.  And you get very little, if anything at all.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Defending your company in a breach of contract dispute requires legal skill, experience and genuine business savvy.  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.