Are you searching for a lawyer for a breach of contract in San Diego or anywhere in California?  Are you in the midst of a breach of contract?  Do you fully understand your legal position under the agreement and the step(s) you need to take to protect your own interests?  Is the dispute rooted in a business-related failure to pay issue, or focused upon issues of poor quality of workmanship?  How can the Watkins Firm help?

Cost Effective, Timely Legal Advice

If you need a lawyer for a breach of contract in San Diego or anywhere in California the Watkins Firm has more than four decades of experience in these cases.  We take a unique approach in these disputes that is specifically designed to resolve the dispute at hand in a cost-effective and timely manner.  Did you know that we are able to resolve the majority of our breach of contract cases in San Diego through leveraged negotiation?  These cases are all about a thorough, well documented chronology of events and a mastery of associated damages.  It doesn’t matter if you are the party who may be responsible for the breach or the victim of a breach of contract, you have actions you must take to protect your interests.

What Is Your Legal Position and Why Do You Need an Attorney for a Breach of Contract in San Diego?

You need an experienced breach of contract attorney from the Watkins Firm to provide immediate insight into the steps you must take to protect your interests and preserve all options. If you are the victim of the breach (the other party has not fulfilled their portion of the agreement) you must take immediate, prudent and sufficient action to mitigate the damages resulting from the breach or you may lose your ability to pursue part or all of any remedies.  If you are the breaching party there are many actions you take to defend your interests in a breach of contract, minimize the financial impact and damages for the other party and ultimately resolve the dispute quickly and efficiently.

The Quality of the Contract Impacts Issues of Poor Workmanship or Quality

How do you pursue a breach of contract for poor workmanship or quality during the course of construction.  Can you withhold payment at the end based upon lower grade materials or sloppy workmanship?  Is poor quality work a breach of contract?

Most of these questions revolve around the quality of the underlying contract itself.  This is why it is so important to have a well crafted contract drawn by the experienced attorneys at the Watkins Firm.  Your contract should clearly state the quality of materials to be used, and the degree of craftsmanship to be provided as part of the work on your job.  It is possible to cite other examples of a contractor’s work to hold up as a standard for your own project.  The contract must be clear regarding all phases of the project, including payment terms, quality of materials, construction techniques and process as well as review points along the way to ensure quality at each step.

Draws during construction should be based upon the completion of quality workmanship and timeliness, not just on a percentage of completion on the job or a time schedule like every other week.  The challenge with these disputes is the vague terms of the contract controlling the transaction.  The more vague the underlying contract, the more expensive and drawn out the resolution of any dispute will become.

Pro-Tip: So the idea, if you’re the party that’s caused the breach, would be to minimize the risk of the damages downstream, however, it’s even more complicated and deeper than that. You don’t have to decide that you are the person that breached because most people, their ego won’t let them do that. But if you’re being accused of breaching again, the first thing you and your lawyer, or whoever should talk about or think about is the exposure for potential damages based on the actions you’re being accused of, and how can you limit those damages with a minimum of expense.

For example, in employment situations, they may be suing you for $5,000 for unpaid wages or overtime, but the lawyer’s going to want to collect $50,000 in attorney’s fees. So before you even get sued or before you even answer a lawsuit, you can go to your Watkins Firm lawyer and find out what your risk may be, what the actual causes are, and what claims have attorney’s fees clauses on them. And you can just simply remedy those before you go into the lawsuit.

Or, someone says you owe $2,000 and you disagree. Well, you could pay them and then fight the case and get your money back. There’s so many situations where looking at the damages can give you a great advantage, even when you’re on the defense side or the plaintiff side, because that’s what you’re fighting about.

What is mitigating the damages? Well, it’s an obligation under the law. A lot of people get hurt or damaged by someone who breaches a contract. And then they go with this attitude that, well, since they breached, (the other party) owes and the “victim” of the 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 and you’ll think you’re going to win $300,000 in trial, but they’ll decide that you failed to perform your obligation, to do everything you could to lessen the amount of damages you suffered, and you’ll actually receive very little, if anything.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Contact Experienced, Proven San Diego Breach of Contract Attorneys

If you are searching for a lawyer for a breach of contract in San Diego or anywhere in California 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.

 Take immediate action to learn more about your unique situation and the actions required to protect your interests and resolve any resulting dispute.