Free tool · Remedies
What Remedy Should I Ask For? A Remedy Selector
The remedy depends on the wrong, what the client wants and what the facts allow. Damages compensate a proved and measurable loss and are the usual remedy. Restitution or an account of profits takes away the defendant’s gain and can be worth more than the claimant’s loss. Specific performance and injunctions are equitable and discretionary: they need damages to be inadequate, and they are refused for delay, unclean hands, personal services or orders a court cannot supervise. A declaration settles a disputed right without ordering anything. Punitive damages are limited to some systems and wrongs. Whatever the remedy, ask whether it can be collected: a judgment against a defendant with no assets is worth little.
Tool · Remedy Selector
Worth asking for: Compensatory damages.
Compensatory damages: Likely
- Damages are the usual remedy at law. The loss can be proved and measured, so the court can put a figure on it.
- In contract the measure is usually expectation: the position the claimant would have been in if the contract had been performed.
- Remoteness, certainty, mitigation and the claimant’s own fault can reduce the award.
Specific performance: Unlikely
- Not likely, because damages would be adequate.
- Plead alternative remedies. Courts often allow a claim to be put in damages and in equity at once, but you cannot ordinarily recover twice for the same loss, and you may have to elect between inconsistent remedies (for example your loss or the defendant’s profit).
- Most real cases end in settlement. The remedy that you could win shapes the price at which the other side will settle.
Describes the wrong and the facts that decide the remedy, and lists the remedies worth asking for with the reasons: damages, restitution, specific performance, injunctions, declarations, punitive damages and rescission. It applies the usual common-law approach in simplified form. Courts keep discretion over equitable relief, systems differ, and a real choice also depends on evidence and on whether the defendant can pay. Invented facts; a teaching aid, not legal advice. Runs in your browser; nothing is stored or sent.
How to use it
- Choose the kind of wrong.
- Tick the facts that apply: loss, gain, a continuing wrong, uniqueness, delay, malice, the defendant’s ability to pay.
- Read the ranked remedies and the reasons.
- Read the advice about election, collection and settlement.
Common questions
Can I claim damages and an injunction together?
Usually yes, for different harms: damages for past loss, an injunction for the future. You cannot ordinarily recover your loss and the defendant’s profit for the same wrong; you must elect.
When is specific performance available?
Mainly when the subject matter is unique (land, a rare object), damages are inadequate, the court can supervise the order and the claimant has acted fairly and promptly. It is not ordered for personal services.
Does the tool predict what a court will do?
No. It applies the usual common-law approach in simplified form. Courts keep discretion, systems differ and a real choice depends on evidence and on whether the defendant can pay.
Learn the law behind the tool
This tool is part of our Remedies course, with lectures, concept maps, flashcards, interactive exercises and a capstone case. Remedies: Choosing and Enforcing Remedies.
More free law tools
General information, simplified, mainly on American law, not legal advice. States and countries differ, and real cases turn on facts that a tool cannot capture.