Hi I’m Reed Bloodworth an Orlando Florida attorney.
Since 2004 I’ve practiced business litigation commercial litigation and estate and trust
litigation.
Today I want to talk about communications I see parties make when they believe a breach
of contract has occurred.
When I say parties I mean the potential plaintiff and the potential defendant.
Often times when a potential breach has occurred the parties are very tempted to begin a series
of e-mail exchanges or telephone call exchanges.
Sometimes this can be helpful but sometimes it can be pretty damaging to your case.
So I just wanted to run through a few examples.
When a potential breach occurs typically it is the potential plaintiff who will notify
the potential defendant.
A very general example would be you know dear defendant the contract we have states that
you were to pay me $500 by the 15th.
You failed to make that payment.
Please make this payment immediately.
That type of communication is fine.
It is within the realm of the contract.
If it was an installment note or something of that nature it’s calm it’s collected
it is a factual statement.
As a potential defendant he may or she may respond that I don’t owe that payment because
of some circumstance that has arisen or perhaps the potential defendant believes that the
potential plaintiff breached the contract and that’s why there’s no payment owed.
These communications are generally OK.
They do establish potential evidence for any lawsuit going forward and often times they
lock the parties in to their potential positions.
So some recommendations.
When there is a potential breach of contract any communications should be calm.
You do not want to immediately fire off a very nasty email or begin name calling or
make statements that you know are untrue because you don’t want to open yourself up to some
other type of lawsuit.
And while it is okay for clients or the parties to exchange some communication maybe attempt
to work out the potential breach it would be very advisable for the parties to engage
counsel.
And before any communication is made between the parties ask the counsel for their advice.
Often times the attorney will give you information that will help you resolve the issue quicker
rather than going into multiple exchanges with each other.
Also often times involving an attorney it will encourage the other side to resolve this
matter.
If at some point the parties appear that there’s just not going to be a resolution it’s beneficial
to have already had counsel involved because they’re aware of the situation and they’ll
be able to immediately begin the lawsuit representing you.
So again my name’s Reed Bloodworth an Orlando Florida attorney.
Give me a call.
Let’s discuss what happened to you.