When you entered into a business arrangement, you likely anticipated the deal benefiting your company in various ways. You may have needed to expand and made a deal with another company to sell your product. You may have needed materials to manufacture your product and reached out to a vendor for supplies. Whatever the case, you ensured that all parties involved signed a contract associated with the arrangement.
While you may have felt secure in moving forward with the deal because of your contractual agreement, you recently hit a major snag. In fact, you believe that the other party has breached the terms of the contract. Now, your company is at risk of suffering significant losses or has already incurred losses, and you need to handle the problem directly and efficiently.
Being as direct as possible
The most direct way to address a problem with a contractual agreement is to reach out to the other party. You may have the ability to bring up the problem with that party and come to an arrangement to rectify the issues that have come about. Of course, the other party may not believe that it has breached the contract terms, and you may not find a simple solution.
Going over the terms
If the other party disputes your claims that it breached the contract, you may want to go over the terms of the contract carefully and determine where you believe the issue has occurred. Important details to consider include the following:
- The dates involved: If the other party failed to fulfill its part of the arrangement by the agreed-upon date included in the contract, that party may have breached the contract.
- Payment: If the contract included terms regarding how much you would pay the other party for materials or services, and the other party now demands a higher payment, that party may have violated the terms.
- Duties: If the contract included information about what actions you expected from the other party or even listed prohibited actions, and the other party did not abide by those terms, you may have reason to make a breach of contract claim.
- Confidentiality: You may have needed to reveal proprietary information to the other party in order to complete the arrangement, and if that party agreed to keep that information confidential but disclosed it to an outside party, you have reason to believe a breach of contract occurred.
Though a best-case scenario in such situations is to resolve the problem amicably, that is not always an option. You may need to consider your viable legal routes to address the problem, including moving forward with litigation. It may be in the interests of your company to discuss the issue with an Ohio business law attorney to determine how to move forward.