James Edward Stern

Trial Lawyer
Certified "Advocate" by National College of Advocacy

A civil practice case may consist of one area of law, or several.  Personal injury law is an example of one area.  Other examples are: 

A contract between two people consists of either (1) a promise to do something from one party in exchange for a promise to do something from another, or (2) a promise from one party to do something for actual performance of an act by another. 

Each term in a contract should be specifically written so that the obligations of both parties are very clear. Your attorney should know what a court would consider clear language and what the court would have difficulty interpreting. If the court has difficulty interpreting a contract, then it will generally look for outside information to assist in establishing the contract's meaning. 

Contract actions are filed when one party breaches a contract, of fails to perform their obligations. If a contract is breached, the court will award damages, but they will not be punitive damages. They will generally be one of three kinds of damages: 

Reliance damages are compensation based on what the non-breaching party spent in relying on the other party to perform a contract. Restitution is limited to trying to put the non-breaching party where they would have been without the contract. Expectancy damages try to put the non-breaching party in the place they would have been in had the contract been performed. 

Property can certainly relate to contacts and contracts can relate to property. Property is basically a bundle of rights, like being able to have someone leave your property should you not want them there. Society created property rights to further its interests. Property is a legal conclusion. Some examples of property issues include: adverse possession, bailments (where one party entrusts their property to another) ,wills, estates, and trusts.