What is the best process for managing a breach of contract case in San Diego or anywhere in California?  How can the Watkins Firm help to resolve these disputes quickly and cost-effectively?  Breach of contract disputes may arise for countless reasons, but it is often an unexpected development or a poorly constructed agreement which disrupts the transaction.

The majority of parties enter into business contracts and employment agreements with good intentions.  Occasionally there are issues which develop that are outside the control of a party.  One example might be the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida.  While most contracts anticipate an act of God or other calamity, poorly constructed agreements or downloaded contracts often provide vague language and no established process to resolve the issues which arise.
Perhaps a critical supplier overseas is backordered on a crucial component, or a major player in your company suffers an unexpected illness or injury.  Things happen, and as your attorneys the Watkins Firm works to resolve issues promptly and efficiently.

The process of managing a breach of contract case in San Diego requires extensive legal knowledge and skill, but is actually quite focused on matters of time and expense.  Our courts are overburdened, and it will take many months and usually more than a year to get a case before the court.  The time and expense associated with this challenge require better solutions.  The Watkins Firm takes a unique approach to resolving breach of contract disputes.  Most of these cases are resolved through effective, leveraged negotiation.  Our skilled attorneys are often able to negotiate a “work around” which allows the parties to complete the transaction or relationship while balancing the cost and time impacts of what has happened.

Pro-Tip: “Damages are what the law can afford you in a civil case. In a criminal matter, the law can afford you incarceration of the offending criminal, but in a civil matter, since your contract and your agreement was mostly about money, then you get money back. And the only time you don’t just get money is when it’s a case where a law will afford you an injunctive or provisional remedy, which is for unique types of damages and unusual circumstances.

Therefore, mastering the damages in the cases so important. First of all, when you are in a lawsuit over a breach of contract or anything, you are investing money to get money. So if you don’t know how much you’re fighting for, how can you know how much you should spend?

Secondly, if you master the damages, if you can prove what the damage to you is, if you obtain and collect all the evidence about the damages, even before you worry about why you were damaged or what the law was breached, you can understand the case, the way a litigator understands it. You can help your lawyer and in the long run, you’ll be more successful in your case, by thinking about how you were damaged, and then working it way back to who breached what and who broke what law.

If you’re the party that’s caused the breach, it’s important to understand the concepts that help to minimize the risk of the damages downstream.  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, the first thing you and your lawyer should talk about or think about is how much potential damages are, and how can you, with very little expense, limit those damages.

For example, in employment situations, they may be suing you for $5,000 and wages unpaid, but the lawyer’s going to want to collect $50,000 in attorney’s fees. So before you even get sued or before you answer a lawsuit, you can go to your own lawyer at the Watkins Firm and know what the 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.

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 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.

You may have heard the term mitigating the damages. What is mitigating the damages, and when do you have to do it?  Mitigating the damages is the obligation of the party who has been “damaged” by the alleged breach. 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 party who is the “victim” of the breach won’t try to mitigate their damages. That is, doing things that would make them suffer less loss 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 get $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 walk out of that trial with little, or nothing.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Mediation and arbitration are two additional strategies for managing a breach of contract case in San Diego or anywhere in California.  Each alternative dispute strategy provides advantages and disadvantages.  Our skilled attorneys provide sound business advice and counsel, and manage your case from negotiation, through mediation and/or arbitration and ultimately through trial.  If you face a breach of contract dispute in San Diego or Southern 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.