Breach of Contract

       “Breach of Contract” means that a legal promise, or contract, has been broken.  Contracts are entered into everyday.  Every agreement involves a contract, whether it is as common as buying a shirt or a multi-million dollar business merger involving many different companies, corporations, partnerships and subsidiaries.

       Some contracts are oral and some are written.  Both are completely legally binding, although proving an oral contract can be much more difficult than proving a written contract.  Usually, everyone involved in a contract fulfills their promises.  Occasionally someone does not fulfill their contractual promises.  This is known as a “breach” of that contract.

        The laws involving contracts can be complicated.  Sometimes contracts are unclear or “vague”.  Usually in these situations the contract is interpreted against the person that wrote the contract.  Usually when someone breaches a contract the person that has been damaged can not only make them fulfill their promise but can also get their attorney’s fees paid by the offending party.

       Sometimes when a company breaches a contract it makes it possible to obtain exemplary or punitive damages.  If a breach of contract occurs under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act then a consumer can often get double or triple their actual damages.

       The laws involving contracts are constantly changing.  For example, the Texas Supreme Court in Marsh U.S.A. v. Cook recently released a decision that dramatically affected the laws involving non-compete agreements.  Non-compete agreements used to be hard to enforce but now the laws of Texas have evolved to allow a broader range of these types of agreements.

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