What Are the Remedies Available for a Contract Breach?

A contract is a legally binding agreement that is enforced by the full weight of the court. In the event that either party to a contractual agreement fails to perform according to the terms of the contract, the other party may take legal action. The party who fails to perform is referred to as the breaching party.  A civil lawsuit for breach of contract may be filed to obtain a remedy for the breach.

There are a variety of remedies available for a contract breach. The appropriate compensation or remedy depends upon the circumstances. The non-breaching party will need to demonstrate that the other party failed to perform in order to be entitled to any type of remedy. The Southern California Breach of Contract Lawyers at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can provide legal representation in cases where one party failed to perform according to the terms of a contractual agreement.

What are the Remedies Available for a Contract Breach?

The remedies available for a contract breach include:

• Monetary damages. The party who breached the contract can be held responsible for the losses caused by the breach.  Both general or expectation damages and consequential damages can result from a breach of a contract.  General or expectation damages refer to the loss directly caused by the breach. Consequential damages refer to losses that occurred because of the breach but that were an indirect cause.  For example, if you contracted and paid for a machine to be delivered and it never came, the general losses would include the value of the money you paid for the machine. The consequential losses could include the loss of business caused by the fact you did not have the machine you needed to do your work.
• Specific performance. In some cases, the appropriate remedy for a breach of contract is to correct the breach by forcing the breaching party to complete the terms of the agreement. Specific performance is an appropriate remedy in situations where monetary damages could not possibly make the non-breaching party whole for the losses. For example, if there was a contract created for a buyer to purchase a very rare piece of art, the buyer could not simply find the art elsewhere. The only remedy that would help the buyer in this circumstance is for the court to require the sale to go through so the buyer got the unique one-of-a-kind painting that he contracted for.
• Rescission. Rescission allows the non-breaching party to essentially be released from performance obligations. Recession is a remedy for a breach of contract because it makes clear that the party is relieved of his duties due to the failure of the other party to perform.
• Liquidation damages. Sometimes, it is very difficult to determine how much a person was damaged by a breach of contract. To address this problem, some contracts contain liquidated damage clauses. Essentially, these clauses specify that the non-breaching party will be awarded a specific amount of money in the event a breach occurs. These clauses will be upheld as long as they are fair.

These are some of the common remedies available for a contract breach.

The California Breach of Contract Lawyers at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can provide you with assistance determining what an appropriate remedy may be and helping you to seek a remedy from the court if you were the victim of a breach of contract. Call today to learn more: 714-505-3000