Breach of Contract Attorney for Los Angeles and Orange County

A contract is a promise the law will enforce. When the other side takes your money and does not deliver, or takes your work and does not pay, you have a claim, and that claim has a deadline. Fred Yadegar represents individuals and small businesses in contract disputes throughout Los Angeles County and Orange County, for the party who is owed and for the party being accused.

What a breach of contract claim has to prove

Four things: a contract, your own performance or a legal excuse for not performing, the other side’s breach, and resulting damages (Oasis West Realty v. Goldman, 2011). Each is a place the case can be won or lost.

The contract does not have to be a signed document. Emails, texts, invoices paid without objection, and a pattern of dealing can all prove an agreement, though some contracts must be in writing to be enforced at all, sales of real estate and leases longer than a year among them (Civ. Code §1624). Bring everything; the stray text you almost deleted often proves the terms.

The deadlines

Four years from the breach on a written contract (Code Civ. Proc. §337), two years on an oral one (§339), and four years on a sale of goods (Com. Code §2725). The clock generally starts at the breach, not when you lose patience, so a dispute that dragged on through promises and partial payments can be closer to the line than it feels.

What you can recover

• Benefit of the bargain. Damages that put you where you would be had the promise been kept (Civ. Code §3300): the unpaid price, the cost of finishing an abandoned job, the gap between promise and delivery.
• Consequential losses, if they were foreseeable when the contract was made: lost profits on a resale, the cost of a replacement vendor.
• Specific performance. For unique property, most often real estate, the court can order the deal to close instead of awarding money (Civ. Code §3384).
• Rescission. Undoing the contract and returning both sides to the start (Civ. Code §1689), typically after fraud or serious mistake.
• Liquidated damages. A pre-set figure in the contract, enforceable only if it was reasonable when written (Civ. Code §1671).
• Interest. Ten percent on contract damages once the amount is certain (Civ. Code §3287, §3289).
• Attorney’s fees. Only if the contract has a fee clause, and a one-sided clause protects both sides (Civ. Code §1717). Punitive damages require a tort such as fraud, not breach alone.

Which court, and whether you get a court at all

Small claims handles disputes up to $12,500 for individuals, less for businesses (Code Civ. Proc. §116.221); lawyers cannot appear at the hearing, though we can prepare you. Limited civil covers claims up to $35,000 with simplified procedures, and unlimited civil takes everything above that, with full discovery and full costs.

Read the fine print first. Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before anyone sues. The standard California residential purchase agreement requires an offer to mediate, and a party who skips it can lose the right to attorney’s fees even after winning. Arbitration clauses move the fight out of court entirely, with limited appeal rights.

The disputes we handle

• Unpaid invoices and non-payment for services. Often resolved by a demand letter spelling out the interest and fee exposure.
• Contractor and construction disputes. Abandoned jobs, defective work, unpaid balances. An unlicensed contractor generally cannot sue to collect for work that requires a license, and the owner may recover what was paid (Bus. & Prof. Code §7031).
• Real estate purchase agreements that fall apart. Deposits, contingencies, disclosure failures, sellers who refuse to close, buyers who cannot.
• Partnership and LLC disputes. Unpaid distributions, refused accountings, members frozen out. The operating agreement usually controls and usually has a fee clause.
• Settlement agreements the other side stopped honoring. One signed in a pending case with the right language can be enforced by motion instead of a new lawsuit (Code Civ. Proc. §664.6).
• Leases and security deposits. A landlord who does not return or itemize a deposit within 21 days after move-out may owe up to twice the deposit for bad faith (Civ. Code §1950.5). Once a lease dispute becomes an eviction, see eviction defense and unlawful detainer.

Step one, on either side of the dispute

A demand letter from a lawyer states the contract, the breach, the amount owed with interest, a deadline, and what happens next. It gets read differently than the six emails you already sent, it builds the record for anything that follows, and it satisfies the offer-to-mediate step some contracts require. Many collection matters end here, with payment or a payment plan.

If you are the one being sued

Being sued does not mean you owe the money. Common defenses: no contract was formed; the plaintiff did not perform first; a condition was never met; the terms were modified or waived by conduct; the claim is past its deadline; the contract was induced by misrepresentation; the plaintiff failed to mitigate; or you have offsetting claims. Where there is a fee clause, an early evaluation tells you whether to fight or resolve before fees pile onto the principal. If a demand letter arrives, do not ignore it and do not answer it in anger. Send it to us. What you write back can be used against you, and so can silence.

What to do right now

• Gather every version of the contract and every email, text, invoice, and payment record around it.
• Write a dated timeline of what was promised, what was done, and when things went wrong.
• Do not send another angry message. Communications become exhibits.
• Check the contract for a fee clause, a mediation or arbitration clause, and a notice provision.
• Note the date of the breach. The deadline runs from there.

Why call Fred

Fred reads the agreement before he gives an opinion, tells you the realistic recovery or exposure, and picks the forum and first move that fit the amount at stake. He represents plaintiffs and defendants, so he knows how the other side will read your file. Tell us what’s going on and we’ll explain your options and costs before you commit to anything. Some collection matters can be handled on flexible arrangements depending on the case.