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Hi, I’m Reed Bloodworth, the managing partner of Bloodworth Law with offices in Orlando, Florida, and Winter Haven, Florida. We handle a broad range of litigation issues including breach of contract and business disputes.
We travel to clients and courts from Daytona to Tampa, Pensacola to Miami, for the most interesting cases in Florida courts, counties and cities.
What Types of Monetary Damages Are There?
I’m going to discuss what types of monetary damages may be awarded in a breach of contract lawsuit.
There are two primary categories of monetary damages in Florida:
- Compensatory, or general, damages; and
- Special damages, sometimes called consequential damages.
What Are Compensatory Damages?
As a general rule, breach of contract damages are compensatory damages. This means that compensation is typically not awarded in order to punish the breaching party.
Instead, financial relief is awarded to account for the actual damages suffered by the person or business that was the victim of the breach. The purpose is to put the non-breaching party back in the same position it was in before the contract was breached.
What Are Special Damages?
The other primary type of monetary damages that are awarded for a breach of contract are special damages. Special damages are monetary damages that flow out of the breach of contract, but are not direct losses because of the breach.
For example, if a plaintiff orders goods from a manufacturer, but the manufacturer fails to deliver those goods, that is a direct breach. The plaintiff then has to order replacement goods from a different manufacturer.
The plaintiff in this scenario might have lost profits on the original goods they could have sold. Those losses would be special damages.
How Do You Recover Special Damages?
To recover special damages, a plaintiff must plead and prove that when the parties made the contract, the defendant knew or reasonably should have known of the special circumstances leading to this type of damage.
Again, I’m Reed Bloodworth, the managing partner of Bloodworth Law. If you have questions about business litigation including breach of contract issues, give me a call. Let’s talk about how Bloodworth Law can help you, your family, or your business.