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Contract disputes can involve substantial financial exposure, important commercial relationships and difficult decisions about what to do next.
Taylor Rose's experienced commercial litigation solicitors act for both claimants and defendants in significant contractual disputes. We advise from the earliest stages of a disagreement through negotiation and mediation to court proceedings, trial and enforcement where necessary.
Our approach is practical and commercial. The right strategy is rarely simply to threaten or immediately start court proceedings. We assess the legal position, evidence, money realistically at stake, likely costs and commercial objectives before advising on the best way forward.
Contact our contract dispute solicitors to discuss your position and options.
A contract dispute often starts with a straightforward commercial problem – someone has not paid, performed what was agreed, delivered what was expected or wants to end an agreement.
We can help you decide what to do about it.
This can include:
Assessing your legal position – reviewing the contract, relevant communications and what has actually happened to establish whether there has been a breach and the strengths and weaknesses of your position. Our guide to dealing with a breach of contract explains some of the important initial considerations.
Advising before you take action – particularly where you are considering ending an agreement. Termination can itself create significant legal risk if the right to terminate is unclear. Our guide to repudiatory breach of contract explains this in more detail.
Assessing claims and financial exposure – including the realistic value of a potential claim or the amount you may be exposed to if defending one. See our guide to damages for breach of contract and our separate guide to loss of profit claims.
Developing the strategy – considering the legal merits alongside costs, evidence, commercial leverage, the opponent's position and prospects of actually recovering money if you win.
Sending or responding to a Letter Before Claim – setting out your position clearly and creating the strongest possible platform for negotiation or proceedings.
Defending claims and bringing counterclaims – assessing not just whether the claim can be defeated or reduced, but whether set-off, a counterclaim, settlement offer or other tactical step could improve your position. Our guide to defences, counterclaims and litigation tactics explains these options in more detail.
Negotiating a resolution – through direct discussions, without prejudice offers, mediation and other forms of dispute resolution.
Making tactical applications and offers – where these can strengthen your position, protect your costs position or put appropriate pressure on the other party.
Enforcing the outcome – where judgment is obtained but payment is not made.
Our lawyers act for both claimants and defendants, which is valuable when assessing how the other side is likely to approach a dispute and where opportunities for resolution may lie.
We advise on disputes arising from a wide range of commercial relationships and agreements, including:
Supplier and customer disputes – disagreements over supply, quality, pricing, delivery, contractual obligations or the breakdown of an important trading relationship, including disputes caused by unclear or ineffective terms and conditions.
Non-payment and disputed invoices – pursuing and defending substantial claims where invoices, fees or other amounts are unpaid or disputed, including claims for unpaid professional and consultancy fees.
Problems with services provided or received – disputes about the scope, standard or delivery of services, payment obligations and whether poor performance amounts to a breach of contract.
Failed deals and commercial arrangements – establishing the parties' rights and potential remedies when a transaction, project or trading arrangement breaks down, particularly where the commercial relationship has not been properly documented.
Ending or terminating a contract – advising whether you have a right to terminate, how to do so correctly and the consequences of getting it wrong, including where there may have been a repudiatory breach of contract.
Poor or defective work, goods or services – claims where contractual work, goods or services do not meet the agreed standard, specification or requirements, including commercial disputes involving defective products.
IT, software and technology disputes – including failed implementations, delayed projects, functionality problems, licensing disputes and disagreements over what was promised or should have been delivered.
Agency and distribution disputes – including disagreements over commission, exclusivity, territories, performance, termination and rights arising under distribution agreements.
Recruitment and introduction fee disputes – disagreements about whether a fee is payable, who made the introduction and whether the contractual conditions for payment have been met, including claims such as our £92,000 recruitment fee dispute.
Warranties, indemnities and guarantees – disputes over whether contractual protections have been triggered, what they cover, who is liable and what losses can be recovered.
Disputes after buying or selling a business – including breach of warranty claims, deferred consideration, completion disputes and obligations continuing after the transaction.
Disagreements about what was agreed – including disputed terms, changes made during a commercial relationship and whether changes or variations to a contract are legally effective.
Verbal or poorly documented agreements – establishing what was agreed where there is no signed contract or the agreement has to be established from conversations, emails, messages and the parties' conduct, as can happen in a poorly documented commercial relationship.
Building and property contract disputes – significant disputes involving commercial building works, development, refurbishment and other property-related contracts.
Contract disputes do not always remain purely contractual. Allegations may overlap with misrepresentation, shareholder disputes, insolvency, fraud, professional negligence or other commercial claims.
Taylor Rose has specialists across these areas who can work together where a dispute extends beyond contract law.
Being legally right does not automatically mean that issuing proceedings is the best commercial decision.
Litigation carries cost and uncertainty. A successful claimant also needs to consider whether the opponent will ultimately be able to pay, while a defendant needs to weigh the cost and disruption of defending proceedings against the possibility of an acceptable settlement.
We therefore look at the dispute in the round:
How strong is your position?
What is realistically at stake?
What evidence supports each side?
What does the opponent want?
Is there useful commercial or legal leverage?
What is the likely cost of taking the case further?
Can a judgment actually be enforced?
Is there a settlement which would make better commercial sense?
Sometimes the right approach is a robust Letter Before Claim or immediate court action. Sometimes it is careful negotiation, a tactical offer or mediation.
Experienced legal advice is often most valuable in deciding which course to take and when.
Taylor Rose's commercial litigation solicitors have experience of substantial and complex contractual disputes, including cases proceeding through trial.
Recent work includes:
defending contractual claims against a cryptocurrency business and pursuing a counterclaim, resulting in an indemnity costs award;
acting in a multi-million-pound breach of mandate claim against a major UK bank;
using a strategically drafted Letter Before Action in a complex commercial dispute involving unpaid invoices, company ownership and an absence of formal contractual documentation – read the commercial dispute case study; and
substantial commercial claims involving cross-border recovery and enforcement.
These examples demonstrate the range of our experience, from resolving disputes strategically at an early stage to conducting contested litigation.
We offer competitive and flexible fee arrangements.
Depending on the case, these can include conventional hourly rates, fixed costs for particular stages and, for appropriate substantial claims, Conditional Fee Agreements and third-party litigation funding.
We also have close relationships with litigation funders, funding brokers and After the Event insurers.
Alternative funding is generally most relevant to higher-value claims and needs to make commercial sense when the potential recovery, likely legal costs and funding charges are considered together.
Our litigation funding page explains the different options, the types of claims we will consider and the advantages and disadvantages of transferring some of the financial risk of litigation.
Telephone -
9am to 5pm
We have a mix of employed lawyers and highly experienced Consultants. The lawyers below may not be all lawyers offering this service. You can find Consultants who specialise in this area of law by using the search function below.
Ideally before taking an irreversible step such as terminating an agreement or starting proceedings. Advice can also be valuable as soon as substantial money is withheld, performance is disputed or it becomes apparent that an important commercial relationship is breaking down.
No. Many are resolved through correspondence, negotiation, settlement offers or mediation. Court proceedings may be necessary where agreement cannot be reached or urgent action is required.
Potentially, but costs recovery is not automatic and you should not assume that every pound spent will be recovered. Costs risk is one of the factors we consider when advising on litigation strategy.
It depends on the complexity and how far the dispute progresses. A matter resolved through correspondence or negotiation will generally cost significantly less than contested court proceedings. We can discuss likely costs and proportionality once we understand the dispute.
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