Need business legal advise

[skhelp]

I recently paid a company for some digital printing work on shirts, and the last minute when they knew they couldn't deliver on the date- they started backtracking and playing games. The sales guy I was working was side tracked and his director contacted me. He started haggling on the price first, then offered lower quality shirts instead of the ones I ordered because apparently now the company was taking a huge loss, then stated he was outsourcing the job(even though it is a large company and they said they do it all on site).. at the end changed the delivery date to couple days after the originally promised date -knowing fully well that the shirts were for a specific event and having the shirts after that was useless. He also retracted the free delivery and wanted me to come pick it up and, additionally sign documents waiving my right to return/refund. He had this -"take it or leave it attitude". When I did not cancel and insisted they fulfil what we agreed upon, he decided to cancel the agreement and sent me my cancellation of payment. Then, he blamed me for not working with him by not accepting the shirts on a later date- that made absolutely no sense as these shirts were ordered for a specific event. I had been working with this company on this order for three months- there were many red flags along the way, but I was always promised the end product would be per my requirements. Now, I am at a loss. I had a very good client of mine that was depending on me, I am a small business owner so this was a huge contract for me- not to mention my reputation and client relationship is at stake. This is last minute so I can't do anything or go to anyone else. What legal rights do I have here? I feel so frustrated and stressed. Thank you for your time.

[Fulcrum]

Stop looking for a lawyer and find a printer that wants your money. Unfortunately, you're going to get hit with a rush fee now (thanks to the other guy), but you will get to protect your name.

[Business Attorney]

If there is time to follow Fulcrum's advise, you should do it for two reasons. The first is the reason he stated; delivering what you promised your client should be your main goal. The second is that by buying the same goods from someone else, you establish the amount of your economic loss from their breach of the contract.

If the date of the event has already passed, your legal right is to sue the supplier for breach of contract. However, that is probably not practical for several reasons:

*First, even if you are successful, assuming you are in the United States and there is no contract that requires the loser to pay the winner's attorney fees, it may cost you more to pursue the suit than you can recover as damages.

*Second, there is always a risk that you will lose -- perhaps they were entitled to cancel the contract or even that the contract was vague and unenforceable. Then you end up with all the legal costs and nothing in return.

*Third--and this the one that many people don't realize--the burden is on you to establish the economic loss that you suffered as a result of the breach. The court will not simply pull a number out of the air and give you money damages, except in rare cases where the judge finds the defendant's conduct so outrageous that you deserve what are know as "punitive damages." Proving the amount of loss when you had to pay more to replace the shirts is pretty easy; setting a dollar value on damage to your business reputation is nearly impossible.