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Commercial Law / Melbourne

Contract Dispute Lawyers in Melbourne

When a commercial contract is broken, disputed, or about to be. We act for businesses in Melbourne on breach, termination, misrepresentation and the money at stake, whether the answer is a commercial resolution or a court. Advised by the team that runs the litigation, so the strategy is set with the courtroom in view from the first letter.

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Contract disputes in Victoria

We know what holds, because we run these to trial

A contract dispute rarely arrives as a clean legal question. It arrives as a supplier who has stopped delivering, a customer who will not pay, a partner who is not doing what was agreed, and a decision you feel you have to make now. What you do in the first week often matters more than the merits.

That is the perspective we bring. We run commercial contract disputes to resolution and, where they have to go, to trial. So when we advise you at the start, we are advising on what will actually hold when it is tested, not on what sounds strong in a letter. The two are often different.

We act for businesses in Melbourne and across Victoria, for the party bringing a claim and the party defending one.

Commercial law at Pentana Stanton

Breach of contract

When the other side does not do what they agreed to do.

Termination & repudiation

Whether you can end it, and what happens if you get it wrong.

Misrepresentation

What was said to get you into the contract, and section 18.

Supply & service disputes

Goods, supply, distribution and service agreements.

Non-payment

Getting paid, and the line to debt recovery.

Urgent relief

Injunctions when you cannot wait for a trial.

Before anything else

The most dangerous move is walking away

When someone breaks a contract, the instinct is to end it: stop paying, stop supplying, walk away, tell them the deal is off. It feels like the strong move. It is the one that most often turns a good position into a bad one.

A breach does not automatically end a contract. It gives you a choice: hold the other side to the deal, or bring it to an end. Which choices are open to you depends on what was breached. Some terms are important enough that any breach lets you terminate; others only ever sound in damages; and many sit in between, where it turns on how serious the breach actually was. Misjudge that, walk away when you were not entitled to, and the law can treat you as the party who repudiated. Now the breach is yours.

A breach does not end the contract. Ending it is a decision, and the wrong one makes you the party in breach.

There is a second trap, on the other side of the same coin: the contract that governs is not always the document you signed. What was said to induce the deal can matter even against an entire-agreement clause, because under the Australian Consumer Law a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive (section 18), and you cannot contract out of it. What the parties have since done can vary the deal, or waive a right. So the first question in a contract dispute is rarely "what does the contract say". It is "what actually governs now, and what has each side already done about it".

What actually governs

The signed document, the terms implied into it, what was represented beforehand (section 18), and what the parties have done since. The contract on paper is where the analysis starts, not where it ends.

Whether you can end it

Termination is a right, not a reaction. It turns on the term breached and the seriousness of the breach, or on repudiation. The safe course is to establish the right before you exercise it, not after.

What it is worth

Damages are meant to put you where performance would have, subject to a duty to mitigate. Sometimes the remedy is specific performance or an injunction instead. And there is a clock: in Victoria, six years to sue on most contracts, fifteen on a deed.

How we work

Position first, then act

i.

Work out where you actually stand

What the contract says, what was agreed and represented around it, whether there has been a breach, and whether it is the kind of breach that changes your rights. The strongest position is often not the one that feels most justified.

ii.

Protect the position before you act

The most damaging moves in a contract dispute are the early ones made in frustration: terminating without the right to, or a letter that quietly concedes the point. We secure your position first, then use it.

iii.

Resolve it, or run it

Most disputes settle, and settle better from a position that is visibly ready to litigate. Where they do not, the same team runs it in court. Nothing is lost in a handover.

Where the value is

Whichever side of it you are on

A contract dispute looks different depending on whether you are owed, or being blamed. We act on both.

When you are owed

You have performed and the other side has not, or has not paid. We move to enforce performance or recover the loss, and where it is purely money owed, to recover the debt.

Debt recovery

When you are blamed

A claim has been made against you. Often the stronger answer is the other side's own breach, its failure to mitigate, or the limits on what it can actually recover. Being the defendant is not the weaker position.

Commercial litigation

When it cannot wait

Where value is walking out the door, an urgent injunction can hold the position while the dispute is worked out. The first days decide what is possible.

Urgent injunctions
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A plain read on where you stand

Initial consultations are confidential and run by senior practitioners who will tell you what your position actually is, and what to do about it, before you act.

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Most disputes settle

Resolving it without a trial

Most contract disputes are resolved without a judgment: by negotiation, by mediation, or under the dispute-resolution clause the contract already contains. That is usually the right outcome, and it is a better one from a position that is visibly ready to litigate.

A commercial settlement reached from strength is not the same as one reached from exhaustion.

When it has to be run

Litigation, and the clock

Where a matter has to be decided, the same team runs it in the Victorian courts. Two things are worth knowing early. Time is limited: in Victoria you generally have six years to bring a contract claim, running from the breach (Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (Vic)), and longer for a deed.

And the remedy shapes the strategy: damages are the default, but specific performance or an injunction may be the whole point. See commercial litigation.

What our clients say

Trusted on the matters that mattered most

After speaking to many law firms, I felt that getting legal help was not for me. But my view completely changed after speaking with Special Counsel Peter Wood. He was knowledgeable, generous, kind, and genuinely caring. Peter listened with compassion and made me feel supported during a difficult time.
Tasnim Mehjabin, Google review
Highly professional, compassionate staff with a high level of knowledge and competence. Reliable, reassuring and there when you need them. Highly recommend.
Gaynor Martyn, Google review
From the moment I contacted Pentana Stanton Lawyers, I was under significant stress and needed clarity about my case. Their prompt and professional response stood out immediately, especially compared to other firms I had reached out to.
Mohannad Ahmed, Google review
Frequently asked

Questions before you act

You generally have two: hold them to the contract and claim the loss the breach has caused, or, if the breach is serious enough, bring the contract to an end and claim damages as well. Which is open to you depends on the term breached and how serious the breach is. The wrong move here is to act on instinct before that question is answered.
Sometimes, but it is a right to be established, not a reaction. You can usually terminate for breach of an essential term (a condition), for a sufficiently serious breach of an intermediate term, or where the other side has repudiated, shown it will not perform. Terminate without one of those and you may be the one who has repudiated, which turns the breach into yours. Take advice before you end it.
Damages, aimed at putting you in the position you would have been in had the contract been performed, so long as the loss is not too remote and you have taken reasonable steps to mitigate it. In some cases a court can order the other side to actually perform (specific performance) or restrain it by injunction, but those are discretionary and not available as of right.
They can. You cannot contract out of the Australian Consumer Law, and section 18 prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct, including in what was said to get you into the deal. An entire-agreement or non-reliance clause does not automatically defeat a section 18 claim, though it can affect whether your reliance was reasonable. So representations made during negotiations are not always wiped out by the fine print.
In Victoria, generally six years from the date of the breach for an ordinary (simple) contract, under the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (Vic). A contract made as a deed has a longer period, fifteen years. Miss the limitation period and an otherwise good claim can be lost, so the date of the breach is one of the first things to pin down.
Often yes. A contract does not have to be in writing to bind, though a few kinds do. The real difficulty with a verbal agreement is proof: what was agreed, by whom, and on what terms. The dispute usually turns on the surrounding evidence, the emails, the conduct, the invoices, rather than on the fact that nothing was signed.
Usually not. Most contract disputes resolve by negotiation, mediation, or under a dispute-resolution clause in the contract itself, and that is generally the better outcome. But the settlements that hold are the ones reached from a position that is genuinely ready to litigate. Preparing as though it will be run is often what makes it settle.
Do not concede by conduct. Being the party accused is not the weaker position: the answer often lies in the other side's own breach, its failure to mitigate, or the limits on what it can actually recover. But an early letter written in frustration can give away a point that was worth keeping. Get the position assessed before you respond.
Before you act, not after. The most expensive moments in a contract dispute are the early ones: terminating without the right to, or sending a letter that concedes the case. Advice at the start, before the first formal move, is usually worth far more than advice once the positions are locked in.

Last reviewed July 2026. Statutory references are current to the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (Vic) version in force 25 February 2026 and the Australian Consumer Law (Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) compilation of 1 July 2026). This page is general information, not legal advice.

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Before you send the letter.

If you are in a contract dispute in Melbourne, or about to be, the most useful call is the one you make before you act. Arrange a consultation and we will give you a plain read on where you stand and what to do next.

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See also: Commercial Litigation, Urgent Injunctions, Debt Recovery, Professional Negligence.