What To Do if Your Business Has a Breach of Contract Claim in Florida
If your business is dealing with a breach of contract in Florida, you need to make informed and strategic decisions about what to do next. There are several important factors to consider as you decide how to proceed, and while going to court might be the next step, there may be other steps your company needs to take as well. Find out more from an experienced Miami breach of contract lawyer at Edelboim Lieberman:
7 Steps to Take if Your Business Has a Breach of Contract Claim
When dealing with a breach of contract, making informed and strategic decisions starts with ensuring that you have a clear understanding of the relevant facts and your company’s legal rights. With this in mind, the steps business owners and executives need to take in this situation include:
Step #1: Make Sure It Is Truly a Breach of Contract
The first step you need to take is to make sure you are truly dealing with a breach of contract. If you haven’t done so already, you should carefully re-read the relevant contract to ensure that you are dealing with a breach and not simply a failure to meet expectations. Ambiguities about contracting parties’ responsibilities can raise questions about whether a particular act or omission constitutes a breach as well.
To be clear, while it is important not to assume that a counterparty has breached a contract with your company, it is equally important not to assume that a counterparty is contractually compliant. If you have questions about whether a particular act or omission constitutes a breach, you should speak with a Miami breach of contract lawyer promptly.
Step #2: Determine if Your Company is Still Obligated to Perform
Another important step to take as soon as possible is to determine if your company is still obligated to perform. One breach doesn’t necessarily justify another; and, even if your company is entitled not to perform, you may need to take formal action—such as issuing a formal notice of default or termination—rather than ignoring the terms to which your company has agreed. If your company needs to pursue a breach of contract claim, you do not want to put your company in the position of needing to defend against a breach of its own.
Step #3: See if Any Remedy Restrictions Apply
Commercial contracts frequently include provisions that limit the remedies that are available for breaches, as this limits the parties’ liability exposure—thereby making entering into the contract commercially viable. To make informed and strategic decisions about how to proceed, you will need to be aware of any contract provisions that limit the remedies that are available to your company. Common provisions include damages caps and restrictions on the types of remedies that are available.
Additionally, some commercial contracts include remedy provisions that are specific to certain types of breaches. For example, a product-based contract may stipulate that a breach of an express warranty entitles the purchaser to a refund of the purchase price but does not otherwise give rise to legal action. If the remedies available for a breach of contract are limited, then pursuing a claim in litigation or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) may not be viable.
Step #4: See if Your Company Needs to File for ADR
Along with examining the “boilerplate” provisions of the contract for any restrictions on remedies, you should also review these provisions to determine if your company needs to pursue ADR—whether mediation, arbitration or both. Mandatory ADR provisions are common in commercial contracts as well, and, in the commercial context, these provisions are generally enforceable under Florida law.
Beyond simply looking to see if the contract has a mandatory ADR clause, you will also want to look carefully to see if this clause is subject to any exceptions. While these clauses are common, it is also common for them to include exceptions for certain circumstances. For example, if immediate injunctive relief is needed to protect your company against additional losses, this is a scenario in which an exception might allow your company to go directly to court.
Step #5: Keep Any and All Documentation of the Breach
From text messages and voicemails to photos, inspection reports and other forms of documentation, you should keep any evidence that you (or anyone within your company) has of the breach. At this stage, it may make sense to implement a “litigation hold,” which is a semi-formal step that involves working with the company’s legal counsel to preserve any and all electronic and hardcopy records that may be relevant to the company’s breach of contract claim.
Step #6: Be Careful About How Your Company Responds
When dealing with a breach of contract, it is important to be very careful about how your company responds. In addition to making sure that you don’t give the counterparty a counterclaim for breach, it is also important to make sure no one within your company says, sends or does anything that could hurt its position in ensuing litigation or ADR. All communications concerning the situation should be tightly controlled, and company personnel should be instructed not to interact with the counterparty unless explicitly authorized to do so.
Step #7: Consult with a Miami Breach of Contract Lawyer
Whether securing a favorable resolution involves negotiating, litigating or pursuing ADR (or some combination of the above), it will be important to work closely with experienced legal counsel throughout the process. Engaging an experienced Miami breach of contract lawyer promptly can help to contain the costs of the dispute as much as possible, and you can rely on your company’s counsel to advise you as you move forward.
Consult with a Miami Breach of Contract Lawyer at Edelboim Lieberman
If you would like to speak with a Miami breach of contract lawyer at Edelboim Liberman, we invite you to get in touch. To arrange a confidential consultation as soon as possible, call 305-768-9909 or tell us how we can reach you online now.
