Legal Definition of Remedies, Remedy

Remedy is the means by which a right is enforced or by which the violation of a right is prevented or compensated.6 min read

What Is a Remedy?

The means by which a right is enforced or by which the violation of a right is prevented or compensated. The means employed to enforce a right or redress an injury.

Why Is it Important to Select a Proper Remedy?

The importance of selecting a proper remedy is made strikingly evident by tho following statement.

"Recently a common law barrister, very eminent for his legal attainments, sound opinions, and great practice, advised that there was no remedy whatever against a married woman, who, having a considerable separate estate, had joined with her husband in a promissory note for X2500, for a debt of her husband, because he was of opinion that the contract of a married woman is absolutely void, and referred to a decision to that effect, he not knowing, or forgetting, that in equity, under such circumstances, payment might have been enforced out of the separate estate. And afterwards, a very eminent equity counsel, equally erroneously advised, in the same case, that the remedy was only in equity, although it appeared upon the face of the case, as then stated, that, after the death of her husband, the wife had promised to pay, in consideration of forbearance, and upon which promise she might have been arrested and sued at law. If the common law counsel had properly advised proceedings in equity, or if the equity counsel had advised proceedings by arrest at law, upon the promise, after the death of the husband, the whole debt would have been paid. But, upon this latter opinion, a bill in chancery was filed, and so much time elapsed before decree, that a great part of the property was dissipated, and the wife escaped with the residue into France, and the creditor thus wholly lost his debt, which would have been recovered, if the proper proceedings had been adopted in the first or even second instance. This is one of the very numerous cases almost daily occurring, illustrative of the consequences of the want of, at least, a general knowledge of every branch of law."

What Can Remedies Be Considered In Relation To?

Remedies may be considered in relation to

1. The enforcement of contracts.

2. The redress of torts or injuries.

How Are Remedies Enforced?

The remedies for the enforcement of contracts are generally by action. The form of these depend upon the nature of the contract. They will be briefly considered, each separately.

- 1. The breach of parol or simple contracts, whether verbal or written, express or implied, for the payment of money, or for the performance or omission of any other act, is remediable by action of assumpsit. This is the proper remedy, therefore, to recover money lent, paid, and had and received to the use of the plaintiff; and in some cases though the money have been received tortiously or by duress of, the person or goods, it may be recovered.in this form of action, as, in that case, the law implies a contract. This action is also the proper remedy upon wagers, feigned issues, and awards when the submission is not by deed, and to recover money due on foreign judgments and on by laws.