Contract and Financial Disputes
Most business disputes come down to a broken promise or unpaid money. We represent companies on both sides of contract and financial disputes, from a breached agreement or a bad-faith partner to an unpaid invoice the other side won't honor, and we push toward the fastest resolution that protects what you're owed.
Talk to an attorneyFounded
1965
Attorneys
11
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Founded
1965
Attorneys
5
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Contract and financial dispute lawyers for Bellevue and Seattle businesses
Oseran Hahn represents Pacific Northwest businesses when a contract breaks down or money goes unpaid. A commercial dispute is rarely about principle alone; it is about getting paid, enforcing the deal you struck, or defending against a claim that threatens the business. We pursue and defend breach-of-contract claims, business torts like fraud and tortious interference, fights over unpaid invoices and guaranties, and Consumer Protection Act claims that can carry treble damages. The goal is leverage early and a resolution that costs less than the fight.
A commercial dispute is a fight over whether a promise was kept and who pays when it wasn't. We bring and defend breach-of-contract claims, including disputes over goods governed by the UCC. We pursue business torts when the conduct crossed from hard bargaining into fraud, interference, or bad faith. We collect what a client is owed on invoices, accounts, and guaranties, and defend businesses sued over the same. We litigate Washington Consumer Protection Act claims, where the stakes can include treble damages and fees. And we use provisional remedies and injunctions to protect assets while the case runs.
Breach of contract claims and defenses
Most commercial disputes start here: one side didn't do what it agreed to do. We prosecute and defend breach-of-contract claims, proving or contesting the existence of a contract, the breach, and the damages it caused, whether the loss is measured by expectation, consequential, or contractually liquidated damages. Washington gives a written contract a six-year limitations period and an oral one three years (RCW 4.16.040 and RCW 4.16.080), and contracts for the sale of goods are governed by the UCC, with its own remedies and a four-year clock (RCW 62A.2, including cover and the limitations period at RCW 62A.2-725). We also raise and defeat the defenses that decide these cases: failure of a condition, prior material breach, waiver, and the statute of frauds.
Business torts and bad-faith conduct
Some disputes go beyond a simple breach. When a competitor induces your customer to walk away from a signed contract, when a counterparty lies to close a deal, or when a partner exercises a contract right in bad faith, the claim sounds in tort, not just contract, and the remedies can be broader. We litigate tortious interference with contracts and business expectancies, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, conversion, and breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing that Washington reads into every contract (Badgett v. Security State Bank). Framed correctly, a business tort can open the door to damages a pure contract claim won't reach, and we defend against overreaching tort theories layered onto what is really an ordinary breach.
Unpaid invoices, accounts, and guaranties
A large share of commercial litigation is simply about getting paid. We pursue and defend claims on unpaid invoices, account-stated and open-account theories, promissory notes, and personal guaranties, along with the equitable fallbacks of unjust enrichment and quantum meruit when no written contract governs. On a liquidated sum the law allows prejudgment interest, which means the meter runs from the date payment was due, not the date of judgment. This is distinct from creditor-debtor and bankruptcy work, which begins once a debtor is insolvent or judgment-proof; here the fight is the threshold one over whether the money is owed at all, and we litigate it to judgment.
Washington Consumer Protection Act and statutory claims
Washington's Consumer Protection Act reaches business-to-business conduct, not just consumer transactions, and it changes the math of a dispute. A successful claim under RCW 19.86 can recover treble damages and attorney fees (RCW 19.86.090), which turns a modest loss into serious exposure, so identifying or defeating a CPA claim early matters. We apply the five-element test Washington's Supreme Court set in Hangman Ridge Training Stables v. Safeco: an unfair or deceptive act, in trade or commerce, affecting the public interest, causing injury to business or property, with causation. We also enforce the contractual and statutory fee-shifting that governs who pays at the end, including RCW 4.84.330, which makes a one-way attorney-fee clause reciprocal.
Provisional remedies, injunctions, and enforcement
Winning on paper means little if there's nothing left to collect. We move early for the provisional remedies that protect a client's position while a case is pending: temporary restraining orders and injunctions under Civil Rule 65, prejudgment attachment and garnishment of disputed funds (RCW 6.25 and RCW 6.27), and declaratory judgments that fix a contract's meaning before the damage compounds (RCW 7.24). When a money judgment is the goal, we litigate to get one and then enforce it. Most of these cases settle, and the credible threat of an injunction or an attachment is often what brings the other side to terms.
Sixty years advising Pacific Northwest businesses, and a trial group that treats litigation as leverage toward a deal, not an end in itself. We know what a contract dispute costs in money and distraction, so we move fast on the points that create settlement pressure and we keep the courtroom ready for the cases that have to be tried.
We know the contract before the fight.
Most of these disputes are about agreements our corporate group could have drafted. Understanding how the deal was supposed to work makes our litigation sharper and our read on the other side's exposure more accurate.
We aim for leverage, then resolution.
An early injunction, a well-pleaded Consumer Protection Act claim, or a clean damages model usually moves a case toward settlement faster than years of discovery. We build the pressure points first.
We watch the fee exposure.
Attorney-fee clauses and the Consumer Protection Act mean the loser can end up paying both sides. We factor that risk into strategy from day one, whether we're pursuing a claim or defending one.
The attorneys behindthe work.
Our business and corporate attorneys handle this work alongside our litigation team, so you have coverage whether your matter stays transactional or becomes something more.
What clientsask us first.
Someone breached a contract with my business. What can I recover?
Usually the money you lost because of the breach, your expectation damages, plus consequential damages that were foreseeable and, if the contract sets them, liquidated damages. If the agreement has an attorney-fee clause, the prevailing party can often recover fees too, and Washington allows prejudgment interest on a fixed, liquidated amount. We start by pinning down what the contract promised, what the breach actually cost you, and which categories of damages the facts will support.
How long do I have to sue on a contract in Washington?
For a written contract, six years from the breach; for an oral one, three (RCW 4.16.040 and RCW 4.16.080). Contracts for the sale of goods fall under the UCC, with a four-year limitations period (RCW 62A.2-725). The clock usually starts when the breach occurs, not when you discover the loss, so timing matters. If you think a deadline is near, talk to a lawyer quickly, because a missed limitations period ends an otherwise strong claim.
What's the difference between a contract claim and a business tort?
A contract claim is about a broken promise; a business tort is about wrongful conduct, fraud, tortious interference with your contracts or customers, or bad faith, that the law treats as its own wrong. Torts can reach broader damages than a pure breach, which is why how a claim is framed matters so much. Many disputes support both, and we plead them in the combination that gives you the most leverage and the best recovery.
The other side says they'll bring a Consumer Protection Act claim. Should I worry?
Possibly. Washington's CPA applies to business-to-business conduct and allows treble damages and attorney fees (RCW 19.86), so even a modest dispute can carry real exposure. But the claim has five specific elements, including an effect on the public interest, and many business disputes don't meet them. We assess early whether a CPA claim is realistic, defuse it where it isn't, and pursue it where the facts genuinely support one.
A customer won't pay an invoice they don't dispute. What can I do?
More than you might expect. We pursue unpaid invoices on breach-of-contract, account-stated, and open-account theories, and on a fixed sum the law adds prejudgment interest from the date payment was due. Where a written contract is thin, unjust enrichment and quantum meruit often fill the gap, and if there's a personal guaranty we can pursue the guarantor too. The first step is usually a demand that makes the cost of continued non-payment clear, which frequently resolves it without suit.
When should I bring in a litigator on a commercial dispute?
Earlier than most businesses do. Bringing counsel in before you've sent the angry email or stopped performing protects your position, preserves the documents that decide these cases, and keeps you from breaching while accusing the other side of breaching. Early advice also tells you whether the dispute is worth litigating at all. By the time a case is filed, much of the leverage is already set, so the early call is usually the one that shapes the outcome.
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Contract, business-tort, and commercial-debt dispute representation for Pacific Northwest businesses, from demand letter to judgment.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
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