When a contract is breached, your client's first question is usually blunt: "What am I owed?" Damages are the default remedy, and advising on them well means more than knowing the breach happened — it means tracing the loss, testing whether the law allows it, picking the right measure, and adjusting for everything that reduces or caps recovery. This is everyday work for a solicitor handling commercial disputes, and getting the figure right is what clients pay for.
This lesson builds that skill step by step:
- Purpose, Causation and Remoteness — why damages exist and the four hurdles a claimant must clear before recovering.
- Measures of Loss — choosing between expectation and reliance loss, and when each applies.
- Cost of Cure, Difference in Value and Non-Pecuniary Loss — how to value defective performance and when distress is recoverable.
- Mitigation and Reductions — the steps a claimant must take and the factors that cut the award down.
- Sale of Goods and Third Party Loss — the statutory measures for goods and recovering loss suffered by others.
- Liquidated Damages and Part Payment of Debts — agreed-damages clauses, penalties, and whether paying less can settle a debt.
By the end you will be able to take a set of facts and work out, with confidence, what can be recovered and why.