Generally, damages are compensatory in nature. Damages are viewed as a 'substitute' for performance. Consequently, they are designed to put the non-defaulting party in the position they would have been in had the contract been performed.

An award of damages will be made if:

• there has been a breach of contract;

• loss or injury has occurred as a result of the breach of contract; and

• the loss or damage is not too remote from the breach of contract.

See Damages.

An account of profits is a discretionary remedy whereby a party that has been wronged by another party may obtain the profits that the wrongful party has acquired as a result of the wrong committed.

Unlike damages, an account of profits is not designed to put the wronged party in the position in which it would have been if the wrong was not committed. Accordingly, the wronged party does not need to show that it has suffered damage in order to avail itself of the remedy.

Generally a successful wronged party must elect between the remedies of damages or an account of profits.

See Account of profits.

An injunction orders a person to perform an act or restrains a person from committing or continuing to commit a wrongful act. The majority of applications for an injunction seek to restrain.

It is a discretionary remedy, often sought on an urgent interim basis.

See Injunctions.

Specific performance is a remedy for the purpose of compelling a party to perform a contract.

Like all equitable remedies, specific performance is discretionary.

See Specific performance.

Restitution is essentially a return to, or restoration of, a previous state or position and an order for restitution requires the defendant to give up his or her gain to the plaintiff.

Originally, restitution was based on implied promise and known as “quasi-contract”. Now it is used to prevent unjust enrichment in defined circumstances. It acts to restore to the rightful owner something that has been unjustly taken away, lost, or surrendered.

See Restitution.

A declaratory judgment is a formal statement by a court confirming the existence or non-existence of a state of affairs. A party in proceedings may seek an order that the court declare the existence of a right or obligation of itself or of another party. It is not a creation of rights, but an indication of what rights already exist.

See Declarations.

A liquidated debt is an amount which can be ascertained by calculation or fixed by a scale of charges, or other positive data. By comparison, damages that are not mathematically calculable and which are therefore uncertain and subject to assessment are categorised as unliquidated damages.

Claims for liquidated damages include claims for debts, remuneration, quantum meruit claims, and claims for breach of a contract in which the amount of damages is specified, or can be calculated.

See Liquidated sum claims.

This group of remedies is appropriate for the dissolution or termination of businesses, and/or the structure under which a business is being conducted. Differing principles apply according to whether the business is being conducted by a natural person or persons, or by a legal structure, and according to whether the business and in the case of a structure, the structure itself, is or is not solvent.

See Solvent and insolvent dissolution and distribution.

Outside the area of landlord and tenant, the remedy of possession of land generally arises in circumstances where a mortgagee seeks to enforce a legal (or registered) mortgage.

See Possession.

Corrective orders can be made by the courts in a number of contexts, and for a number of purposes including rectification of wrongly drafted documents that do not reflect the intentions of the parties, correction of misleading statements and advertising, and restoring records of shareholding wrongly omitted or removed from a share register.

See Corrective orders.