The are five steps to determining whether there is a valid claim for breach of contract:

• Is there a valid contract?
• What were the terms of that contract?
• Has that contract been breached?
• Has the person suffered damage as a result of the breaching party’s conduct?
• Is the person entitled to damage?

Each of the above steps has a number of elements that need to be established.

Common reasons why disputes arise include:

• Breach of a contractual term, such as the failure to provide the goods/services or to remunerate a person for the provision of goods/services.
• An unforeseen event occurs that means the contract cannot be performed as originally agreed.
• The parties disagree as to what the terms of the contract actually are.
• A party has signed a contract but did not understand what they were signing or were pressured into signing it.

It is therefore important that the parties to a contract understand exactly what their respective rights and obligations are before the contract is signed.