5 Key Considerations for Filing a Breach of Contract Claim in Florida

If your company is dealing with a breach of contract, responding appropriately requires informed decision-making. You need to ensure you have a clear understanding of your company’s legal options, then choose the best option in light of the circumstances at hand. While there is no way to know for certain what will be best in any particular case, an experienced Miami contract dispute attorney can provide insights based on his or her experience representing companies in similar cases.

Overarching Considerations for Commercial Contract Disputes in South Florida

In all cases, there are overarching considerations. If your company is facing a contract dispute in South Florida, some of the key factors you will need to consider as you decide whether to pursue a claim include:

1. What Claims Can Your Company Assert Under the Circumstances at Hand?

Contract breaches can take many forms and have numerous implications. When faced with a counterparty’s breach, it is critical to assess the rights it grants your company under the circumstances.

As you assess your company’s options, it will be important to consider all potential claims. This includes not only claims for breach of contract, but also claims for insurance coverage, indemnification, and enforcement of other contractual obligations. If the counterparty’s breach also gives rise to statutory or common law claims, this could provide your company with even greater leverage to aggressively pursue litigation and/or settlement negotiations.

Once you know what claims your company has available, you can strategically decide which claims to pursue. While a “kitchen sink” approach will make sense in some cases, it can also be strategic to focus on a subset of viable claims most likely to succeed.

2. What Defenses is the Counterparty Likely to Assert in Response?

When assessing potential claims related to a commercial contract dispute, it is important to assess potential defenses as well. If your company asserts a particular claim, what is the counterparty likely to assert in response? Are any of its likely defenses supported (or at least arguably supported) by the facts at hand?

Making informed decisions involves seeing the dispute from both sides. If you don’t anticipate a potential defense (or don’t give a potential defense the consideration it deserves), you might not be able to achieve the outcome that you were expecting to achieve when you initiated formal legal action.

3. What Remedies Are Available (Both Technically and Practically)?

Along with assessing potential claims and defenses, it is also important to assess the remedies that are available. Broadly, potential remedies in commercial contract disputes fall into the following categories:

• Monetary damages (compensation for actual and projected business losses)
• Injunctive relief (prohibiting breaching or infringing conduct)
• Specific performance (mandating contractual compliance)
• Termination or rescission of the parties’ contract (potentially in addition to damages and/or injunctive relief)

When evaluating your company’s legal options, it is important to consider not only the remedies that are technically available but also what is practical under the circumstances at hand. For example, if your company is entitled to damages but the counterparty is insolvent, it may not be feasible to fully recover your company’s financial losses. In this scenario, unless adequate insurance coverage is available, it may make sense to pursue damages to the extent possible, but also seek to terminate the contract so that your company can focus on moving on.

Likewise, if your company is entitled to specific performance, it will be important to assess the likelihood that the counterparty will comply when faced with a court order. If compliance is unlikely, it may make more sense to pursue other remedies.

4. Is the Dispute Subject to Mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)?

Many commercial contracts include mandatory alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses, which are generally enforceable under Florida law. If your company is required to pursue mediation or arbitration before (or instead of) going to court, this will need to factor into your decision-making as well.

You will also need to consider what the contract says about jurisdiction, venue, and governing law—as these types of terms can also greatly influence the viability of pursuing enforcement. Additionally, mandatory ADR clauses commonly include exceptions for certain types of claims, so you will want to check carefully to see if an exception applies under the circumstances at hand.

5. Is It In Your Company’s Best Interests to Target an Amicable Resolution?

Finally, when facing a commercial contract dispute, it is also important to carefully consider the desirability of targeting an amicable resolution. Does your company rely on the relationship at issue? Is this a longstanding relationship that is worth trying to preserve for the future? Or, can your company easily find a new vendor, supplier, or source of revenue? These types of questions are well worth considering, and if the breaching counterparty wants to preserve the relationship too, this could help facilitate efficient, good-faith settlement negotiations.

Likewise, even if the relationship at issue isn’t particularly valuable, it may still be worth pursuing an amicable resolution rather than going through the dispute resolution process. Even if it means not fully enforcing your company’s contractual rights, does it make sense to prioritize resolving the dispute and moving on? As a business owner or executive, you will need to make this decision based on what you believe is best for your company in the long term.

Schedule a Call with a Miami Contract Dispute Attorney at Gonzalez Law Offices, P.A.

At Gonzalez Law Offices, P.A., we provide strategic, insightful, and effective legal representation for companies facing commercial contract disputes in South Florida. If your company is dealing with a breach of contract, we invite you to contact us for more information. To schedule a call with an experienced Miami contract dispute attorney, call us at 305-676-6677 or tell us how we can get in touch online today.