Chicago Breach of Contract Attorney
Protecting Your Business with Experienced Legal Support
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 Law Firm 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.
Recovery Options for Breaches of Contract 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.
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.