Chicago Breach of Contract Lawyer
Legal Support for Chicago Businesses Facing Contract Disputes
When you enter into a legally enforceable agreement, you expect all parties to live up to their contractual obligations. When another business entity fails or refuses to deliver, it can lead to your company suffering substantial financial consequences. You will likely need to consider legal action to hold the offending party accountable and recover damages.
Our Chicago breach of contract lawyer can give you the guidance your business needs in handling these intricate matters. Our firm knows how Illinois adjudicates breach of contract cases and can work to deliver the results your company needs to move forward. If you have been improperly accused of a breach of contract, we can also give your company the vigorous defense it will need.
If your company is suffering due to a breach of contract, do not wait to call our number (312) 647-2483 or contact us online to discuss your legal options with our Chicago breach of contract attorney.
Understanding Your Recovery Options After a Contract Breach in Illinois
Most commercial agreements are designed to benefit all companies involved. A failure to uphold a contract can trigger more than direct financial losses. For example, your company might ratify a contract with a vendor that will supply a certain amount of a product on a fixed timeline. Should the vendor then be unable to live up to the terms of that contract, they leave your company in a vulnerable position. Your lack of the product that was supposed to be supplied could leave your business unable to fulfill its contractual obligations with other companies, leaving you potentially exposed to legal liability due to another entity’s failure.
In the state of Illinois, a breach of contract claim will evaluate the following factors:
- The contract’s validity and enforceability
- The performance and behavior of the parties
- The extent of the breach of contract of the offending party
- The injuries directly resulting from the breach
Financial losses of numerous types can potentially be recovered when a breach of contract occurs. Injured parties are not necessarily limited to only direct and definable, or “actual,” financial consequences. They may even be able to recover losses stemming from “substitutions,” or the effort and resources necessary to finding a new entity to replace the offending party.
Depending on the situation, an injured party has several means of recovering losses stemming from a breach of contract, including:
- Enforcing the contract’s terms. Some robust legal agreements will include provisions that govern what should happen if a party fails to live up to their obligations. This can include financial penalties when certain deliverables are not met
- Canceling the contract and pursuing a restitution lawsuit. If the contract’s terms allow it to be canceled, the injured party might choose to “cut their losses” and sue to be put in the position they were in before the contract was formed
- Pursuing legal action to recover compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are the actual damages or losses suffered by the non-breaching party incurred as a result of the breach of contract and can include, among other things, the amount of gain the injured party would have received if both parties had fully performed the contract.
- Pursuing legal action to recover liquidated damages. “Liquidated damages” put a number to the nebulous, difficult-to-define financial losses that a party might experience in the event of a breach and is contained as one of the contract provisions at the time the parties entered into the contract. When a breach occurs, the injured party can sue the offending party to recover the financial terms previously agreed to.
Fraudulent misrepresentation is a common feature of breach of contract cases. An unscrupulous entity might intentionally lie, distort, or omit relevant facts to compel a business to enter into a contract that, for example, the offending party knows it cannot fulfill. This is an example of an intentional tort and can entitle the injured party to cancel the contract without penalty and recover additional damages.
In issuing monetary awards for damages sustained in a breach, the state of Illinois aims to place the injured party in the position they would have been if the terms of the contract had been successfully met. No one necessarily expects or plans for a breach of contract to occur, so when one does, you may be uncertain about how to proceed. Our Chicago breach of contract attorney can evaluate your situation and identify your legal options.
