Contracts are an everyday reality for all businesses, from small and medium sized enterprises to large multi-national corporations. Such contracts can define many things: from the relatively mundane details of a routine business relationship to the specific details of the supply or receipt of goods and services, while also relating to more specialist areas – for, example complex projects or one-off occurrences.

However, although the contract is the fundamental building block of business, not all contracts are honoured. In such circumstances a breach of contract may be said to have taken place which may lead to a dispute and, potentially, to commercial litigation.

A claim for breach of contract may be necessary for several reasons, not least the fact that such a breach can delay, hamper or even fundamentally disrupt or undermine both your cash-flow and the activities of your business.

Unfortunately, making a claim in these circumstances can be costly and inconvenient and finding suitable breach of contract solicitors can be difficult. Fortunately, Simply.Law has been developed to meet the needs of parties who are facing this situation.

Between them, our member breach of contract solicitors work right across the country and cover the full range of specialist commercial litigation areas so that you can feel confident of finding the best lawyer to assert your rights. In fact, many of our members are recognised as being among the leading practitioners in the country by both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

The first steps

Whatever the nature of your breach of contract dispute, and regardless of whether you are looking to make a claim or to defend one, it is likely that Simply.Law’s member lawyers will look to establish the following from the outset:

• Whether there is a written contract
• The precise language of the contract
• Whether the contract might be overruled by statute
• Whether the contract has been altered or varied by any subsequent correspondence
• Whether the contract has been waived in any way – for example, by a period of inaction
• The likely value of the claim

Causation

In order for a claimant to successfully claim breach of contract damages, it will need to be proven that any financial loss arose as a consequence of normal events associated with the breach and that these in turn were a reasonably foreseeable consequence. This must be proven on the balance of probabilities.

A court must consider what would have happened “but for” the breach. Similarly, the court might consider any “lost chance”; this means that they look at what might have happened had the contract been honoured in the agreed way.

Mitigation

Claimants can only claim compensation for those losses caused as a result of the breach. Furthermore, they cannot claim for losses sustained as a result of any failure to mitigate these losses.

This means that claimants should be able to demonstrate that they took reasonable steps to minimise the losses caused by the contractual breach or breaches.

Seeking the best breach of contract claim legal advice

Simply.Law’s membership includes some of the UK’s leading commercial litigation solicitors. By browsing our membership or trying our Simply.Law Match tool you can be sure that you will be connecting with the specialist who is best-suited to your case.

Examples of our members’ areas of breach of contract expertise include the following:

• Construction contract disputes
• Multi-jurisdiction claims
• Defective work or goods claims
• Non-payment
• Agency and distribution contract claims
• Franchise agreements
• Joint ventures
• Partnerships
• Shareholder claims

Contact Simply.Law today and we will help you find the best breach of contract lawyer for your needs.