However, more specifically, civil litigation often involves a dispute between two business, two people (neighbors or business associates), two parties over broken promises (a mechanic and the customer). Contract law is often said to be about broken promises between two parties. There are many ways to breach a contract (violating or ignoring provisions within the contract, unjust enrichment, breach of warranty, to name a few). There are also multiple remedies designed to resolve breach of contract cases (expectation damages, incidental damages, consequential damages, quantum meruit, etc.). When a party (or both parties) believes he has been wronged by the other party because the agreement they made has been violated, one of the most common occurrences is the filing of a lawsuit. This is a civil lawsuit for damages or for specific performance. This may involve an employment contract, a warranty for car repair(s), a lease agreement in landlord tenant situations, or any other scenario where a lawsuit may be appropriate and in which damages may be recovered.Click here to contact an attorney Lake County FL for help if you are thinking of suing for damages, or if you have been sued and need our help.
To best illustrate what a civil lawsuit is, let’s work through two common examples of civil litigation lawsuits and invent facts to make these examples easy-to-follow.
You are a landlord. You own a home that you inherited from your parents, but you live 100 miles away. Your plan is to rent the house out to tenants. Naturally, because it is your inheritance, you expect people to treat the house as you would. Six months after signing a lease to rent your home to a tenant, you hear from the tenants that the new Air Conditioning unit you paid for is not working, that the stove is broken, and that there have been some bugs around the house. The tenants do not believe it is their responsibility to pay because they are not the home owners and they see this as ordinary wear and tear. You believe the tenants (oh, and did I mention they have not paid rent in two months?) are responsible and likely caused the damage to the home by neglect and indecency. Mr. or Mrs. Landlord, you probably will want compensation for the damage to the house, as well as to evict the tenants, and you will want to collect unpaid rent. I could just as easily write a totally different scenario from the tenant’s perspective and it would be just as convincing. This is why lawsuits are so prevalent. Communications and trust break down between the parties.
You own a used car. You cannot afford a new car and your credit is decent but not helping you to secure a deal on a new car. One day, out of necessity, you purchase a used car from a local dealer. The dealer promises a 6 month warranty. You have not read the fine print of the warranty contract before signing. Three months into your ownership of the used car, there are mechanical problems with the car. You ask the car deal to repair the car and she does. One week later another problem develops. She refuses to repair the new problem because it is not included in the warranty (according to her/the dealer). You are in a difficult position. You cannot afford to repair the car, or to replace the car, but you need transportation to get to work or you will lose your job. Do you want to hire an attorney Lake County FL to write a demand letter to the dealer or perhaps to sue for damages? I could just as easily write this paragraph again from the dealer’s perspective and as I said above, it would be just as convincing.
For more information on your options regarding a civil lawsuit as either the plaintiff or the defendant, please contact us today.
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jjlawfl Joined: October 30th, 2017 Articles Posted: 20
