Reading the contract first
Breach of contract litigation starts with the document. Courts in New York generally enforce clear contract language as written, so the exact wording of the obligation, any notice and cure provisions, and the termination clause often decide the case. Many contracts also contain clauses that limit damages, require arbitration, pick the governing law and the court, or award attorney's fees to the side that prevails, and those terms can change the economics completely. Oral agreements can be enforceable in some settings, but certain kinds of contracts must be in writing. Adding a fraud claim that simply restates the broken promise usually does not survive in New York; it needs a separate basis.
Building the record
Collect the signed contract and every amendment, including email exchanges that changed the terms in practice. Keep invoices, delivery records, payment history, and any written notice of breach that either side sent. If the contract requires notice before termination or an opportunity to fix the problem, check whether that step was taken, because skipping it can turn the claimant into the breaching party. Document your own losses carefully and keep evidence of what you did to reduce them, since damages that could reasonably have been avoided are often not recoverable. Preserve internal messages too, and talk with counsel before deleting anything.
Deciding whether litigation is worth it
We start with what you can realistically recover and what it would cost to get there, because a valid claim is not always a worthwhile lawsuit. We look at whether the other side can pay a judgment, whether a demand or a negotiated resolution makes more sense first, and whether a counterclaim is likely. The limitations period for contract claims is longer than for many other claims in New York, but contracts sometimes shorten it, so we check. If you have been sued, we look at the same questions from the other direction and at what must be filed first.
