In Assessment 2, you will write a briefing (3–4 double-spaced pages) in which you select and analyze a publicly available legal case involving a breach of contract or dispute arising from a contractual agreement.
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Introduction
Contracts are fundamental to business transactions, forming agreements through offer, acceptance, and consideration. If one party changes the original offer, it constitutes a counteroffer, giving the other party the option to withdraw. Once terms are agreed upon and documented, the contract typically outlines remedies for breaches, such as compensation for nonperformance. Courts rely on these terms to determine the expectations of the parties if a dispute arises. Understanding contract law is crucial for professionals to navigate agreements effectively, manage breaches, and negotiate favorable terms. For example, a business manager must know how to address a supplier’s failure to deliver goods on time and pursue appropriate remedies, ensuring agreements protect organizational interests and minimize disputes.
In Assessment 2, you will analyze a legal case involving a breach of contract, evaluating key elements such as offer and acceptance and examining how courts resolve contract disputes. You are also encouraged to perform the ungraded knowledge check activity to gauge your readiness before completing the assessment. These activities will allow you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s arguments real-world contract scenarios, deepening your understanding of contract law and providing you with practical insights into how contracts are formed, enforced, and breached in business settings.
Preparation
- The first step in preparing your case law analysis is to choose a legal decision involving contracts. In your briefing, you must be able to understand the court’s decision, summarize it, and evaluate it. You may choose any publicly available legal case involving a breach of contract or dispute arising from a contractual agreement. To help you get started, use these useful resources to find an interesting case involving breach or a contractual dispute:
- Capella University Library Legal Research Library Guide.
- Database Guide: HeinOnline.
- Independent Research.
- This section of your reading list includes several sites you can search from.
- Review the Drafting a Case Brief media activity to review parts of a written court decision to help in your analysis and evaluation.
- Also review the Business Law Foundational Concepts media activity.
- This multimedia will help you to understand the reading materials and articles you find.
- Click Transcript. (After you open the multimedia, the Transcript link is located at the lower right corner of the screen.)
- Use the transcript as another resource to quickly look up some of the more common terms. This terminology will be useful in personal, scholarly, and professional settings.
Instructions
Once you have selected a decision and an organization impacted by the decision, imagine you’re a senior manager in the organization you selected and that you were asked to prepare a briefing (3–4 double-spaced pages) of the court decision to help the executive team of the organization understand the impact the case might have on the company.
In your briefing, please complete the following:
- Summarize the facts of the case.
- Include detailed explanations of the facts.
- Include key distinctions and nuances that enhance understanding of the case.
- Explain all key contractual terms in dispute.
- Include detailed and nuanced explanations of their relevance.
- How do these terms matter in the case?
- Apply relevant legal principles (for example, offer and acceptance, consideration, performance) accurately.
- Demonstrate exceptional understanding and insight into how these principles relate to the case.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s arguments.
- Provide insightful and nuanced analyses of each party's arguments.
- Analyze the court’s ruling and rationale clearly and accurately.
- Offer detailed commentary on the rationale and implications.
- Analyze alternative outcomes clearly.
- Argue the potential impact of these alternative outcomes.
- Demonstrate nuanced understanding of the feasibility and implications of these outcomes.
- Explain accurately how the ruling applies to a specific industry and third-party company.
- This is the company and industry where you should imagine yourself to be a senior manager for this assessment.
- It is for the real or imagined executives of this company that you write this briefing.
- Provide these executives with concrete examples to demonstrate how they should modify their their operating procedures to be consistent with the case opinion.
Additional Requirements
Based on your executive audience, your executive briefing should be no more than four pages, in addition to a references page, and should be well organized and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing content to sources that support your analysis and conclusions.
Your submission should meet the following requirements:
- Written communication: Write in complete sentences free from errors that detract from the overall message.
- Font and font size: Arial, 12 point.
- Format and length: Double-spaced, 3–4 pages.
- Citations: Include complete citations of your sources along with a references page. Review Evidence and APA for more information on how to cite your sources.
Review the assessment scoring guide for details on how your assessment will be graded.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
- Competency 1: Articulate the importance, context, purpose, and relevance of law in a business environment.
- Summarize the facts of the case clearly, including key relevant details.
- Apply relevant legal principles correctly, including clear explanations.
- Evaluate alternative outcomes clearly, including their potential impact.
- Describe accurately how the ruling applies to a specific industry or third-party company.
- Competency 2: Evaluate key judicial concepts that influence the decisions related to business.
- Describe all key contractual terms in dispute.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s arguments.
- Analyze the court’s ruling and rationale clearly and accurately.
- Competency 5: Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
- Convey purpose in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.