Breach of Contract Claims in Colombia

Before filing: what can be proved

In a breach of contract case the winner is not the party that is right but the party that can show it. So the work starts with the evidence, not the law: what the signed contract says, what was actually performed, and what was recorded. We review the contract and its amendments, purchase orders, delivery notes and handover records, invoices and their acceptance, and the correspondence between the parties, including the emails where someone admitted a delay or asked for more time. That correspondence often decides the case.

We also look at what can cut against the client: deliveries accepted without reservation, payments made after the alleged breach, long silences, and limitation periods that have already run. We prefer to flag that at the outset, in writing, before the client invests in a case that may take years.

What can be claimed

The outcome sought shapes how the claim is built, and not every remedy suits the same case. We work out with the client what the real objective is: recovering money, getting out of the contract, or forcing performance.

• Performance of the contract together with damages for the delay.
• Termination for breach, with restitution and damages.
• Enforcement of the agreed penalty clause, arguing both its enforceability and its amount.
• Damages: direct loss and loss of profit, which must be quantified and proved, not merely asserted.
• Enforcement of security: performance bonds, guarantees, letters of credit and security interests.
• Restitution of assets handed over under the contract.

Quantifying loss is what weakens most cases. Loss of profit with no accounting support is not awarded however clear the breach, so we decide early what evidence will support each figure and whether an expert report is worth commissioning.

Where the claim goes

The forum is decided before the claim is drafted, because getting it wrong costs months. We review the dispute resolution clause: if it points to an arbitral tribunal, the civil courts have no jurisdiction and the work continues in our arbitration practice. If there is no clause, we identify the competent court by domicile, place of performance or what the parties agreed. And we check whether out-of-court conciliation must be exhausted first, as it must in a large share of civil and commercial matters.

Conciliation is not just a formality. Properly prepared, with the claim quantified and the evidence visible to the other side, it resolves cases that would otherwise have taken years.

If you are the defendant

Defence has its own strategy and its own calendar. From service, deadlines run to answer, raise defences, challenge the amount claimed and request evidence, and whatever is said in that first submission stays on the record. We handle:

• The answer, with substantive defences and objection to the damages claimed.
• The defence of non-performance by the claimant, where its breach came first.
• Arguments on the penalty clause, agreed liability caps and contractual limits.
• Limitation, time bars and lack of jurisdiction where the contract contains an arbitration clause.
• Joinder of the insurer or of the third party actually responsible.
• A counterclaim, where the company also has something to claim.

How the case is run

1. Written assessment. Viable claims, evidence available and missing, jurisdiction, deadlines and likely outcomes.
2. Informed decision. Estimated cost, likely duration and risk of each route, including not suing and negotiating instead.
3. Evidence preparation. Gathering documents, third-party statements, expert reports and a reconstruction of how the contract was performed.
4. Filing and interim relief. Claim or defence, with interim measures where there is a risk to recovery.
5. Hearings and appeals. Representation at the initial hearing, taking of evidence, closing submissions and appeals.
6. Closing. Judgment and, where favourable, enforcement through to payment.

What the client receives

• A written viability opinion setting out what can be proved today and what still has to be obtained.
• A reasoned quantification of what can be claimed and on what support.
• The claim or defence filed, with a defined evidence strategy behind it.
• Representation at every stage and plain-language reports on what is happening and what it means.
• A recommendation on the contract clauses worth changing going forward, so the same dispute is not repeated.