Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Your question actually answer itself. An action for declaratory relief determines the rights and duties of the parties. For example, such an action can let the parties know who has the right to possession of an automobile or whether the title to real property should be in the name of one or the other party.

If you think that the defendant breached the contract, the usual legal action is for "breach of contract." You might also need to allege an action for declaratory relief, and there could be all sorts of other causes of action available to you.

Check with an attorney, at least to help you identify your legal issues.

You don't file a declaratory relief cause of action FOR breach of contract. They are alternative causes of action, and the declaratory relief cause of action is usually just a throw away pleading that attorneys use to cover their backsides in case they screw up the breach of contract cause of action somehow.

I strenuously disagree with Mr. McCormick in his position that "the declaratory relief cause of action is usually just a throw away pleading that attorneys use to cover their backsides..."

When one actually understands the cause of action, one realizes that it can be quite powerful. It seeks a court declaration of the parties' rights, when an actual controversy exists.

Do not think of it as "a throw away." I think that would be wasting a, possibly, valuable legal tool.